tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-121980272024-03-06T02:18:10.388-08:00TravelogueDebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.comBlogger92125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-14652489383925199582024-03-06T02:17:00.000-08:002024-03-06T02:17:36.872-08:00The SBF saga<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> Book review - 'Going Infinite' by Michael Lewis</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1lYiWcAXpP-5e2cdlseimsY-Dt4J9qzXKdxaSbm9e3H_M_GQSCh0ELQ9HObNp9vpwhWZ9e9KxGTTFk2zu63gplF0mu3O_GEY1pSMyOeMDKM1J65iPO1IiPHl1QTX7_47yxdI3uC4HVj8zdObyqcrytnP5tHyg1PiUwqfo6McdYBPuksEdaWOxYA/s300/Screenshot_20240306_134653.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="281" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1lYiWcAXpP-5e2cdlseimsY-Dt4J9qzXKdxaSbm9e3H_M_GQSCh0ELQ9HObNp9vpwhWZ9e9KxGTTFk2zu63gplF0mu3O_GEY1pSMyOeMDKM1J65iPO1IiPHl1QTX7_47yxdI3uC4HVj8zdObyqcrytnP5tHyg1PiUwqfo6McdYBPuksEdaWOxYA/s1600/Screenshot_20240306_134653.jpg" width="281" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">For the most part, this (audio)book, narrated by the author himself, sounds like a character study of the main protagonist, the founder and CEO of failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried aka 'SBF'. But anyone with even a nodding acquaintance with corporate life would be horrified at the total lack of structure and controls Sam maintained in his business ventures while handling billions, and that he was allowed to get away with it for such a long time.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The book describes a comfortable but seemingly angst-ridden childhood and teenage for Sam, as progeny of respected academics. Sam considered himself probably the smartest child and young adult among his peers, in a matter of fact way and not out of deliberate conceit. An interesting episode from his childhood is when he was shocked on realizing that other people considered God as something real, not as a widespread spoof like Santa Claus! The Bankman-Frieds also didn't celebrate birthdays, contrary to widespread social norms.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Going into his teens, Sam did reasonably well in his studies. He considered only math and such quantitative subjects as the real stuff, all else and especially liberal arts was to him a lot of mumbo-jumbo. He was not fond of reading, and thought 'Books were sort of dumb'. But after some time Sam got really bored and didn't know what else life had in store for him. He was known among family and friends to sit silent for long stretches, without being unfriendly. He had started showing signs of a character trait of lack of empathy, though not cruelty. Later in working life, he taught himself how to make a show of attention to others, with certain words and gestures, though he'd keep up for life his habit of playing games online while apparently talking to people over video call.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">After graduating from MIT with Physics and Math, Sam joined Jane Street, a quantitative-trading firm. He excelled at his job there, being quantitatively gifted. Around that time, Sam discovered the community of Effective Altruists (EA), who basically aim to do good for the world by making enormous sums of money and spending on projects and efforts with huge reach. Sam was influenced by a leading voice in the EA community, and in turn propagated and worked with other EAs throughout his career.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Leaving Jane Street after some time, Sam created his own venture Alameda Research (the firm in the eye of the storm in the FTX scandal) in 2017, with some other EAs (including some like Caroline poached from other firms including Jane Street), to trade cryptocurrencies on many exchanges across the world. The age of cryptocurrency had dawned not too long back with Bitcoin and such, and Sam devised some computer algorithms to trade them for enormous profits. Even then, his total lack of respect for established norms of corporate functioning and accounting was apparent. Millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies routinely went 'missing', and then were found in exchanges at far away places, mostly in Asia.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">But Sam was not satisfied with the comparatively small pickings of a few hundreds of millions that Alameda was making with crysptocurrency trading. He also had a falling out with some of the EAs who helped him run Alameda, and they wanted to push him out. Sam then created the cryptocurrency exchange FTX in 2019, with the help of reclusive tech wizard Gary (who was known till the end as the only person who really understood what went on inside FTX computers). This led to ballooning of 'takings' from hundreds of dollars to tens of billions. Forbes magazine once estimated Sam's value to be approx. $ 22 billion on the lower side. Same operated FTX and Alameda from a number of locations across the world starting with Hong Kong, toying with Dubai for a time, and filally settled at the Bahamas, setting up at Orchid Penthouse, in a collegial setting, and then building a corporate office designed like a 'jungle' at Albany Resorts. Besides Caroline, his sometime girlfriend who Sam made the CEO of Alameda, a group of other EAs like Nishad and Ramnik helped him run the whole enterprise.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">And 'running' the enterprise seemed to be a euphemism for somehow managing to earn in billions while not caring for the most basic corporate structure and accounting norms. For a multibillion dollar enterprise, FTX had no designated CFO, and no regular accounting reports or balance sheet. Sam found the human resources function to be wholly unnecessary - not only the processes, but there was not even an organization chart: nobody knew exactly who or how many were working for FTX/Alameda. Ditto for marketing, which he equated with useless wordplay - for him, all that marketing required is throwing millions of dollars to a wide range of people: politicians (Sam and other EAs once experimented with capturing a US Congress seat by supporting a candidate with a millions of dollars, but he lost), celebrities, sportspersons, TV personalities. He was confident that as long as the show was kept up, nobody would try look under the hood. Sam was fond of saying 'People don't see what they're not looking for'.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">So how did the house of cards come crashing down? It seems in his hubris, Sam made the mistake of unnecessarily needling CZ, the found of Binance, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, a sometime supporter but with whom Sam had a few run ins earlier. A reaction to an innocuous tweet from Coinbase led to a heated exchange over Twitter. It was alluded that FTX had a big 'hole' in its balance sheet, of about $ 8 billion, mainly through diversion of customer deposits to privately held Alamdea Research, which had lost it either through market losses or in market making, there was no way to tell. Things unravelled fast, and after trying other avenues Sam at one point agreed to sell FTX to CZ. But once CZ took back his offer after due diligence, the writing was on the wall, and FTX declared bankruptcy in November 2022.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The sordid FTX saga is still playing out in US courts, with sentence of anything from 5 years to as much as 100 years being talked about for Sam. The guy himself seems unrepentant, insisting that what he did was probably a mistake, but unintentional and for a good cause.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">While picking up through the pieces of FTX, Constance the Mandarin-speaking member of Sam's top team remarked 'He's absolutely zero empathy'. But probably the last word on the business, as opposed to the person, was probably said by John Ray, the specialist who Sam assigned as the CEO on declaring bankruptcy. While an abrasive and sometimes misguided troubeshooter, Ray's initial remarks on taking over were on the dot, that he had never come across โsuch a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information.โ</span></p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-27261308022336955112024-01-03T07:21:00.000-08:002024-01-03T07:21:10.666-08:00In the Bonesetter's Waiting Room<p> No, this is not a reminiscence of my time spent in a Hyderabad bonesetter's waiting room - it's Aarathi Prasad who did that in her book of the same name!</p><p><br /></p><p>Being a 'promiscuous' reader, wont to plough through parts of half a dozen books on a typical evening, I don't recall fully the last one which gripped my attention enough for me to suspend all other readings and finish one book - perhaps 'And Then There Were None' (or maybe 'The Sittaford Mystery'). So Aarathi Prasad is in venerable company when she forced me to do that. And to think that I came across the book in a list of Prasad's past works, in a piece on her latest book in 'The Hindu', with the cover being a definite draw evoking intriguing feelings.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK1dIuJuXYlcelHEyOzL0v6WAzfJGnjQiR8Z2sm43wjRuvf3Y3TDYiUWaa9nLoDuL53hIYzSOqab6SnQYAhgn0Aetns6-_fyR-EqBKjaUFjD0LRGmsHRueNhSo9FkGM_58a0BTJ-7A73CrKirvWRlp50A_7hQkTXmyRkUGIKapXJ4BqGpSUKf5Ng/s4000/20240103_153138.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="2252" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK1dIuJuXYlcelHEyOzL0v6WAzfJGnjQiR8Z2sm43wjRuvf3Y3TDYiUWaa9nLoDuL53hIYzSOqab6SnQYAhgn0Aetns6-_fyR-EqBKjaUFjD0LRGmsHRueNhSo9FkGM_58a0BTJ-7A73CrKirvWRlp50A_7hQkTXmyRkUGIKapXJ4BqGpSUKf5Ng/s320/20240103_153138.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>I'd imagine it's difficult enough to hold readers' attention in a non fiction narrative dealing in as dry a domain as India's healthcare system, laying out the mortality and morbidity figures in between. But to do that in an empathetic tone all through, while keeping the reader engaged in delightful stories of both hope and despair, is the work of a master storyteller.</p><p><br /></p><p>And here's the catch: it's difficult to define the book as belonging to one specific genre. Is it science, is it history, or is it plain human narrative! The science part comes in through Prasad's credentials as a PhD in genetics and working with University College London. Doubtless this enables her to look deep into the intricacies and claims of 'Ayush' systems of Indian indigenous medicine, in an empathetic and non-patronising manner but also keeping her scientific scepticism alive as needed. The empathy probably comes, as she herself admits, from the fact that her grandfather was a Ayurveda researcher and teacher, and a member of a post-1947 Chopra Committee of Government on integrating indigenous and Western medicine systems. Prasad's mother filled her in on his work.</p><p><br /></p><p>Whether talking about the Unani bonesetters of Hyderabad, the Ayurvedic 'fish doctors' of Secunderabad or the myriad other indigenous medicine practitioners, Prasad acknowledge that they 'fill in the gaps' in India's healthcare system, seemingly available on call to the relatively rich but quite inaccessible for the people who direly need it for life threatening conditions, and thus cannot just be dismissed peremptorily. She details the ways in which many Ayush practitioners have made sincere efforts to get themselves certified as also integrate modern medical instruments and methods where needed into their regimen.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2wuvHDrnz8rbUbEZbrlQmsp5jGXE_6mMgn2eO95kp1B2c5hsnpNsq5uG9iLetCVW2Ynnn87FjREW8tKrSBaZ27_JgNyezCkoYHZXq_RmoS0979nDjkctD9LxVswgNtUehb71_7U-98HOGDnXwZsrfa5rkRwpf5NpQn-iOpiliYXzNPLTqlCC54A/s2992/20240101_195240.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2731" data-original-width="2992" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2wuvHDrnz8rbUbEZbrlQmsp5jGXE_6mMgn2eO95kp1B2c5hsnpNsq5uG9iLetCVW2Ynnn87FjREW8tKrSBaZ27_JgNyezCkoYHZXq_RmoS0979nDjkctD9LxVswgNtUehb71_7U-98HOGDnXwZsrfa5rkRwpf5NpQn-iOpiliYXzNPLTqlCC54A/s320/20240101_195240.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Alongside, Prasad narrates the huge work done by the redoubtable Dr Devi Shetty in Bengaluru and elsewhere, the stellar efforts of the National Ayurveda Dietetics Research Institute and the Sam Pitroda-founded Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, both in Bengaluru, the Central Research Insitute of Unani Medicine in Hyderbad, and a host of other such institutions and individuals.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbuh_MWiZuuNllph0Lw0vaO3fAQPe52SRLe9Q-0NI14NXynSfU73v9lU8l66qO0bYn35HGq_qX4Bwv7I3hvSmon__Vx1tg69V-WAUgUulGw5GV63-TbVh31LVq4_NcoFn0HUw4Z_oCqrSWtrT0bg6EN8N8gxjUOl_7lo9iIkPwP_u7rsP2oKlXiQ/s4000/20231231_112803.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbuh_MWiZuuNllph0Lw0vaO3fAQPe52SRLe9Q-0NI14NXynSfU73v9lU8l66qO0bYn35HGq_qX4Bwv7I3hvSmon__Vx1tg69V-WAUgUulGw5GV63-TbVh31LVq4_NcoFn0HUw4Z_oCqrSWtrT0bg6EN8N8gxjUOl_7lo9iIkPwP_u7rsP2oKlXiQ/s320/20231231_112803.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC7jb3PxKD1FfmQrYd5CRAVuvgiqxTcaPiOUSoYfWU1qsir6mjrHD-n1dMHODRxgkFTkKdAodC-tTZ_dL9FvUvB-qWuW4eAxvWVN15bGvWtb47NdRQAenPIqfym4vGIKp_eBpR4PZU9c4Fl91QqxKc9vG130rSvDp1cFd71oRcaaSxBzA3HSflhA/s4000/20231231_115536.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC7jb3PxKD1FfmQrYd5CRAVuvgiqxTcaPiOUSoYfWU1qsir6mjrHD-n1dMHODRxgkFTkKdAodC-tTZ_dL9FvUvB-qWuW4eAxvWVN15bGvWtb47NdRQAenPIqfym4vGIKp_eBpR4PZU9c4Fl91QqxKc9vG130rSvDp1cFd71oRcaaSxBzA3HSflhA/s320/20231231_115536.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh1Vvd90ztPOzQD2rtqbyWwwOuI1DghPGsk36SebNHmnBxL3zBKmMkEbF8Bxh6MudYevZj9I6vz3VEV1DdlBLtK9qybu40bypUfZH-pMCgoqz-1-8-vs1mMA5jUlPyyRMUrsT80RpPkj8N_T41rr5iF9cFV_5R4qBmAPLiLhS20ebsqfSuHt6t4g/s2992/20231231_115750.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2992" data-original-width="2992" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh1Vvd90ztPOzQD2rtqbyWwwOuI1DghPGsk36SebNHmnBxL3zBKmMkEbF8Bxh6MudYevZj9I6vz3VEV1DdlBLtK9qybu40bypUfZH-pMCgoqz-1-8-vs1mMA5jUlPyyRMUrsT80RpPkj8N_T41rr5iF9cFV_5R4qBmAPLiLhS20ebsqfSuHt6t4g/s320/20231231_115750.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMfeGyM1onFptXINuCp1-aiKbMmcTtnuvBs31KA7sZhEgo_7Vodn04Jo4YX900T7nWIs_di2VFL7xV0N5_gnxRmJ19sdpUq53koPoyocFUaFtupoAAmqfwx7tXzpsg0F-2POCtIVVcjf_WtqwaVA3YyjWP6OS-XWjdXs61h7ifiqhxQ-_sdGjueA/s4000/20240101_195419.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="2252" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMfeGyM1onFptXINuCp1-aiKbMmcTtnuvBs31KA7sZhEgo_7Vodn04Jo4YX900T7nWIs_di2VFL7xV0N5_gnxRmJ19sdpUq53koPoyocFUaFtupoAAmqfwx7tXzpsg0F-2POCtIVVcjf_WtqwaVA3YyjWP6OS-XWjdXs61h7ifiqhxQ-_sdGjueA/s320/20240101_195419.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>But clearly, it's the descriptions of the human condition which sets this book apart and raises it above a dry narrative. The way the doctors and staff at the hospital in Dharavi slums in Mumbai, where Prasad waded through ankle deep slush to reach community workers, work within and with the community, even addressing the long-ignored psychological issues espcially of women. The factors why a range of people across social divides are increasingly going in for plastic surgery. How the SEARCH rural hospital, in Naxalite-infested Gadchiroli jungles in Maharashtra (the innovations of which were duly acknowledged even by international bodies and rolled out in other countries), came to be designed and named by the Gond tribal community it serves, to give them comfort. These she describes in excellent detail and perhaps better than any professional NGO communicator could (it helps that after her PhD, Prasad worked in science policy and communication).</p><p><br /></p><p>All through, Prasad deftly weaves in the history of both indigenous and Western ('Hippocratic') medicine systems, 16th century onwards and earlier, showing that in their essence perhaps these systems were not as watertight as thought. And while on history, she waxes lyrical at the way an hour long drive through Delhi is like driving through centuries, or how the history of old city of Hyderbad comes alive in the solitude of night. That she starts and ends the book with Marcel Proust quotes is the icing on the cake!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinBdD3kBw_v9dwabt92Fh6GOQGTEOz5tGK_n6XA3J6-jU4vb-XBBklJvbpZ0hJjJ3F03BGjZKkvGCZ9awpilrxNixfMWY__D2uc8Oq3kerV5zS_Y8o4MjIPYFBPeVQHehkcSMhBf8sr3hakWiwFIxSUWT8LWb0qby4gB0s94PeM7cd4MrTCYwk2g/s4000/20231231_115644.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinBdD3kBw_v9dwabt92Fh6GOQGTEOz5tGK_n6XA3J6-jU4vb-XBBklJvbpZ0hJjJ3F03BGjZKkvGCZ9awpilrxNixfMWY__D2uc8Oq3kerV5zS_Y8o4MjIPYFBPeVQHehkcSMhBf8sr3hakWiwFIxSUWT8LWb0qby4gB0s94PeM7cd4MrTCYwk2g/s320/20231231_115644.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT3W9w54s-fob0N-IjzE9Sjf3vXcDK6rchVDxjI6jMLwT8TQzaPaEMpSPHncH9JdX-j27cYUXC55IZWrpqnyuDvvRg_z1K1TbwXUW2u2ZiXzrDRswb0zqlnvaw2uaJV4EHiOF5k57OQSh9YkPbW_N9yn1NtsY0pV5zaVg4ztZ-7pwiJHRcZPqhsg/s4000/20231231_122533.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="2252" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT3W9w54s-fob0N-IjzE9Sjf3vXcDK6rchVDxjI6jMLwT8TQzaPaEMpSPHncH9JdX-j27cYUXC55IZWrpqnyuDvvRg_z1K1TbwXUW2u2ZiXzrDRswb0zqlnvaw2uaJV4EHiOF5k57OQSh9YkPbW_N9yn1NtsY0pV5zaVg4ztZ-7pwiJHRcZPqhsg/s320/20231231_122533.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLu8-7ejaoEhhtbAr_9liXMGZm3jpn1lSK_lBA2N4VTB0kb93HiSMYup85RtiVIrwOMMwpa_RdeC8j907eTbaPy2wwJCarQUZg3pQKUebU_m3-Wx-Ilne1Vrj_q-VkNiP54US0pPHn3va_bhfwxsYxyYXcUaaqNMg_haLGK8Qy3ENWuME283B0ug/s4000/20240103_152947.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLu8-7ejaoEhhtbAr_9liXMGZm3jpn1lSK_lBA2N4VTB0kb93HiSMYup85RtiVIrwOMMwpa_RdeC8j907eTbaPy2wwJCarQUZg3pQKUebU_m3-Wx-Ilne1Vrj_q-VkNiP54US0pPHn3va_bhfwxsYxyYXcUaaqNMg_haLGK8Qy3ENWuME283B0ug/s320/20240103_152947.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>This is one book that those who have anything to do with the healthcare and the social development sector, especially in India, should read compulsorily, to inculcate an empathetic but also knowledgeable frame of mind about healthcare in India. But for an interested reader, it's a jolly good read anyway.</p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-18906060222430718462023-06-15T02:05:00.006-07:002023-06-15T02:05:54.023-07:00Exodus of the Rich?<p>A recent report on a statement by a worthy on 'too much tax terrorism', and the resultant exodus of HNIs (high net worth individuals, or the ultra rich) out of India, generated a heated debate.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyMZeap6ZpMAfnBVAiQDUH2ofl3QcHwHPOEQQ0JvhExiaseGqos6RYMYpTLROS_u2gYqa4ecpMLzlvf7-dOueJUj3IUo9CcJlhbYVo7gpowjQIZUQW0zbHl2n3kmILXIm2Ch8MUGgB0nNycJL9eoGz9xfLJF6Wd6bxzqa4-_U6RNEuZSeLy-w/s1080/IMG-20230614-WA0055.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyMZeap6ZpMAfnBVAiQDUH2ofl3QcHwHPOEQQ0JvhExiaseGqos6RYMYpTLROS_u2gYqa4ecpMLzlvf7-dOueJUj3IUo9CcJlhbYVo7gpowjQIZUQW0zbHl2n3kmILXIm2Ch8MUGgB0nNycJL9eoGz9xfLJF6Wd6bxzqa4-_U6RNEuZSeLy-w/s320/IMG-20230614-WA0055.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This was also commented upon by a well knowm media personality.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOZe5CN0R2KwxVymJKNghLTlLDQ_fa8kds_DYXSV9KnasgJk6qjEbug3VSevLi7FWyoqXoLbQJxuRLoVN-MT51AAGzGhQshPedF5PYoNhynxTmx0pv5P_1QyVAIODMhfbk_LJxBQGI83ooSHfHyMWUT11teuOuoUg6HH8Ion4vEuvlYmQt8Os/s1410/Screenshot_20230615_140801_DuckDuckGo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1410" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOZe5CN0R2KwxVymJKNghLTlLDQ_fa8kds_DYXSV9KnasgJk6qjEbug3VSevLi7FWyoqXoLbQJxuRLoVN-MT51AAGzGhQshPedF5PYoNhynxTmx0pv5P_1QyVAIODMhfbk_LJxBQGI83ooSHfHyMWUT11teuOuoUg6HH8Ion4vEuvlYmQt8Os/s320/Screenshot_20230615_140801_DuckDuckGo.jpg" width="245" /></a></div><br /><p>Some of the reactions to the referred statements were like: 'If one includes the fast route for US and European visa, that will be as much as this and in addition the normal immigration visa offered by Canada and Australia. <i>Clearly the expectations is what am I getting for the contribution made in the form of taxes or hardships.' (</i>emphasis supplied)</p><p><br /></p><p>Now, in this global village, nobody begrudges the legitimate decisions of certain HNIs to shift base to greener pastures (sometimes after squeezing the Indian market for all potential opportunities, and getting all gung ho about India being a 'vibrant economy' and all that!). One part of my mind (the impulsive one) tends to agree with the action and sentiments, what with it being a year-round hastle to optimise personal taxes, with seemingly usurious rates applicable otherwise.</p><p><br /></p><p>But, perhaps because of my background in social development sector, there's another part of my mind which says such hankering after tax concessions is nothing but the fulminations of the already privileged seeking to further enhance their advantage, due and otherwise.</p><p><br /></p><p>The issue is, have the rich (who're naturally the ones seeking to flee India if their demands for lenient taxation are not met) really <i>earned</i> all their income and wealth <i>without</i> any innate advantages or privileges bestowed on them (or, in many cases, wrangled by 'managing the environment')? Isn't their income and wealth at least in part (sometimes substantially) attributable to their privileged birth, education and other advantages either inherited or bestowed by the powers that be (if not by virtue of family background/social class)? I'm aware that this is akin to the argument advanced by the Ambedkarites in favour of perpetrating reservation, again something on which there could be two views, diametrically and violently opposed to each other.</p><p><br /></p><p>รow, in contrast to the rich of a few generations back who mainly inherited their wealth (and doubtless enhanced it, though in some cases also squandered it!), the <i>noveau rich</i> and startup founders probably have a stronger claim to being 'self made millionaires/billionaires' who, as a corollary, don't owe anything to society or (taxes to) govt. But try telling that to those living in urban slums or children of countless farmers, landless and otherwise, who for no fault of theirs (discounting both inherited wealth and inherited penury!) are forced to toil away without any visible progress across decades or even generations. All while the future startup founders are reaping the benefits of a stable family, economic and educational environment courtesy their 'creamy layer' status (with no allusions to backwardness of any hue).</p><p><br /></p><p>So, the threatened exodus sounds, especially to the underprivileged, like the Amazons and Googles of the world exploiting their workers at one end and avoiding taxes by basing themselves in tax havens at the other end. As if only they've a God-given right to earn and enjoy the privileges of wealth!</p><p><br /></p><p>Perhaps the only factor vitiating the argument against the fulminations of the rich is rent-seeking politicians making high promises to the poor but actively perpetrating leakage of public resources garnered through taxes by graft and inefficiency, something which doesn't seem like going away in my lifetime.</p><p><br /></p><p>And that's a sobering thought...</p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-43874670085825597952023-06-10T23:28:00.002-07:002023-06-14T08:02:34.468-07:00Ageing...<p>Travelling on a vacation with an elderly couple, close relatives, provided some perspectives on the issues besetting ageing in India.</p><p><br /></p><p>The elderly couple seemed lucky, as typical of their generation, as far as physical support of family members was concerned. One of them has limited mobility, walking slowly with support of a stick. Though trying to be as lively as ever, and with the background of a long career in security forces, he was as upright as ever. </p><p><br /></p><p>Though naturally not able to accompany the group on some parts of the trip due to limited mobility, he was sporting enough to offer to stay back in the hired vehicle and let others roam. It was probably equally sporting of others to avoid leaving them behind and instead skip certain destinations, even as the long stretches of road were quite a tortuous experience for everyone and especially so for the elderly couple, what with the 'in season' mad traffic which was standstill for the most part, leading to swollen limbs from sitting in a vehicle for long stretches of time.</p><p><br /></p><p>But all this got me thinking. Compared to my generation in India, the previous generation seemed incredibly fortunate, though for them it's matter of fact and nothing special. Though they may not have been horrified (like their previous generation) if their children had chosen to live separately from them, being aware of energing social realities, there's still the unsaid expectation that the children would look after them in old age just as they had looked after and brought up the children.</p><p><br /></p><p>In contrast, my generation can hardly expect our children to stay with us beyond a stage. This is not a lament, just an acknowledgement of reality as it exists now. Due to education and work exigencies our children, global citizens as they are, are themselves never sure where they'd be at different stages of their life. </p><p><br /></p><p>So while most children of ours seem consciencious enough to think about supporting us to the best of their ability, the simple fact is that they may not be able to, frequently. We're sometimes pleasantly surprised when a child consciously chooses to stay back near(er) to us to the extent they can, while of course not compromising on their education or career prospects. </p><p><br /></p><p>So when - and I consciously say 'when' and not 'if and when', as a pointer to the fond hope and confidence - our children offer to support us financially or otherwise, but remotely, it's perhaps incumbent on us to graciously accept such offer and make the best out of it to strengthen the parent-child bonds. </p><p><br /></p><p>The other choice is to act petulant and reject such offers, on the ground that the children 'should support' us unconditionally and 'in situ', sometimes even to the detriment of their own education or career prospects! This'd be extremely 'childish' behaviour, in a reversal of generational roles, in most cases leading to a lot of bitterness all around and potentially even tearing the bonds asunder semi-permanently.</p><p><br /></p><p>Because let's face it, emotions and feelings are biased by a huge 'recency effect', being determined most often by the complexion of a relationship over the last few years. Nobody looks back to what someone may've done for him or her decades back! The truth of this would be clear if we're honest enough to look back to our own relationship with our parents. Did we always treat them with the love and respect they deserved, while disregarding the small niggles in behaviour which are a natural part of an evolving relationship?</p><p><br /></p><p>So for us it's important to, firstly, keep ourselves as healthy as we possibly can, starting in middle age or earlier, reminding ourselves that, unlike our previous generation, we'd most probably not have our children taking up caregiving responsibilities in our old age. </p><p><br /></p><p>As a corollary, it's incumbent to develop hobbies and interests, perhaps jointly with friends and relatives with whom maintaining good relationships is sine qua non anyway. Amongst interests, travel is probably the best way to keep our mental channels open with wonder and excitement, besides gaining invaluable and progressive perspectives on life and cultures. But of course ability to travel is affected to a large extent by economic and other considerations, even as our reluctance to travel alone even when we want to may be based more on fear of the unknown rather than any real risks, as in this day and age of tech enabled facilities, any and all services are available at the click or touch.</p><p><br /></p><p>Which brings us to another facet needing attention at all stages in life but especially in old age - the need to be in tune with technology. Many of us neglect keeping ourselves up to speed even with normal everyday technology. I know first hand about seniors who still prefer to come down and go up multiple flights of stairs daily and visit shops to do even essential daily shopping, even while grocery and essentials can be and are delivered at our doorsteps in minutes by quick commerce companies after a few clicks on an app. Now, we can't deny that at least a part of such daily visits to neighbourhood shops is to keep up traditional links, besides fulfilling the need to at least talk to someone, when children and even friends and relatives are not able to meet that need. </p><p><br /></p><p>But being reasonably tech savvy is not a luxury or fad but an essential survival skill these days, for banking, shopping, insurance, health and a host of civic services. The alternative to this is either to go stand in long queues in inhospitable environments or be dependent on relatives and others to carry through digital transactions which, besides being a hit on self-respect, may also be open to abuse and even fraud. Even otherwise, it pays to keep oneself aware of the contours of potential pitfalls in cyberspace, essential when it involves one's own money but also in domains like fake news and deep fake videos, to avoid getting caught in fraud and worse.</p><p><br /></p><p>And while on the subject of travel, if one can't travel in person, those blessed with the hobby of reading and exploration have a relatively inexpensive option to 'go places' virtually, through the printed word or through ebooks, audiobooks and a host of other options.</p><p><br /></p><p>As for the wider issue of interests, spirituality is also a valid choice for those so inclined. And while the hoary concept of 'vanaprastha ashram' elucidated in our ancient scriptures is perhaps not fully practical these days, nothing stops someone from persuing spiritual leanings at any stage in life.</p><p><br /></p><p>Besides all this, one thing to give serious consideration to could be senior living facilities. With the burgeoning options, driven by the rising number of seniors with means or with supportive children, the stigma attached earlier to the concept of 'old age home' seems on the ebb, though the multitude of unfortunate cases of ungrateful children abandoning their aged parents at hovel-like dwellings is also a reality.</p><p><br /></p><p>But there are now a number of senior living residences sprinkled across India providing reasonably good services to clientele. I personally know people who're staying at senior living facility for a decade or more, and are quite happy with their life. However, in the absence of any active regulatory mechanisms in the sector, selection of an appropriate facility requires very careful evaluation of all relevant factors, especially as it's hardly akin to a one time property purchase transaction, as provisioning of reasonably good level of services on a long term basis is essential. Besides safety and health aspect of the infrastructure, including emergency and elective health support on need basis, optional services like laundry, cooking or food, wellness and social activities are some of the other aspects to be considered while selecting a senior living facility, necessarily a decision with long term implications.</p><p><br /></p><p>Of course, a necessary factor in the entire decision to go in for senior living facility may be a certain level of emotional connect and sync between the spouses, if both are planning to opt for it. Otherwise, if one is willing to adapt to the senior living life, while the companion is pining for the existing level of urban facilities and conveniences and shopping options and more, differences are bound to crop up sooner rather than later. And this has the potential to actually raise the level of stress instead of leading to a peaceful life as intended, stress which most people may be ill-equipped to handle in their old age.</p><p><br /></p><p>To sum up, while taking a practical view of things while dealing with the emerging reality of children living separately, whether nearby or on distant shores, we seniors need to maintain positivity till the end of life while taking all necessary steps and life decisions to survive well and not be overly dependent on someone.</p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-43088642205880787122023-02-17T03:58:00.001-08:002023-02-17T03:58:15.556-08:00I think, therefore I am...<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I was recently watching an episode of the hillarious Netflix series 'Cunk on Earth'. The series, on its surface, starts with exploring the history of the world, in the style of the great Sir David Attenborough in BBC Earth, but frequently lapses into nonsensical questions and remarks. In one passage of the episode I was watching, Cunk makes fun of the famous philosphical dictum 'I think, therefore I am' (reputedly coined by the 17th century French phisopher Rene Descartes) and goes into some convoluted ruminations on that, and also asks hillarious questions of an expert.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But, quite apart from all that Descartes meant to convey by the phrase, this seems to have a surprising parallel to the world of quantum physics. As physicists like Carlo Rovelli (in his 'Helgoland', a history of how quantum theory was postulated in 1920s and then developed by a series of renowned scientists, many of them Nobel laureates) like to explain, anything in this world exists only in as much as it interacts with other things. It's like answering the age old question 'If a tree falls in the forest and nobody sees it, did it actually fall' with a 'No', since it didn't 'interact' with anyone. In that sense, it seems all things actually exist only as... ummm... possibilities or potential, not as real things, and 'pop into being' only when they interact with other things. In the style of the elusive particles the observed behaviour of which apparently gave rise to the whole discipline of quantum physics.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But coming back to philosophy, it may also be said that even human beings exist only as possibilities or potential, in the rhetorical sense at least. Positive Psychology guru Martin Seligman says that more than half of us are 'living in the future', that we're constantly thinking about future scenarios moment to moment, sometimes based on things done in the past and often predicted by what we intend to do. But all such future plans are potential only, good or bad, and fructify as concrete things only when our plans or intentions are translated into actual action...</span></p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-263067234420084642023-02-08T23:23:00.000-08:002023-02-08T23:23:24.033-08:00Book Review - 'Think Again' by Adam Grant<p style="text-align: justify;">The subtitle of this book is 'The power of knowing what you don't know', and this describes very well the whole premise of the book, that we need to consider letting go of our set ways of thinking, to be able to enhance our understanding and knowledge of how things work in this increasingly VUCA - volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous - world.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh29Rvugr4__Q28WayarFLyMwT9HVDvjIFWxX1M8ULzCwJ6HLRmDXile6opubAXwC61geti0Ch6DdzjXcKiQd8sst7vQTsMUQffFBxFrEGWHl0Yh8vyvv4eeg4NQEZwr1Uo8SZAWQyvPG-bfP2Aj6cyHQvhKa7dmgU1eNyV848QJLquxJAs20Y/s225/ThinkAgain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh29Rvugr4__Q28WayarFLyMwT9HVDvjIFWxX1M8ULzCwJ6HLRmDXile6opubAXwC61geti0Ch6DdzjXcKiQd8sst7vQTsMUQffFBxFrEGWHl0Yh8vyvv4eeg4NQEZwr1Uo8SZAWQyvPG-bfP2Aj6cyHQvhKa7dmgU1eNyV848QJLquxJAs20Y/s1600/ThinkAgain.jpg" width="225" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">The successive chapters of the book describe ways to deal with different aspects of the rethinking process: personal, interpersonal, collective, organizational and for kids. Certain ideas in the book expand upon well-known strategies for fresh thinking, supporting the same with scientific and behavioural research findings. Ideas like 'think like a scientist', constructing and testing hypothesis; 'persuasive listening', taking account of the 'question to statement ratio'; debunk myths for kids, stop asking them 'what do you want to be when you grow up'; and (in an organizational setting) foster psychological safety.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Some of the perspectives brought out well in the book hit home accurately. For instance the thought about avoiding to be 'stranded on Mount Stupid', courtesy over confidence and misplaced reliance on a stand (haven't we met such 'stranded' people so many times!). Grant also goes into some detail on different aspects of conflict. First off, he recommends not only being receptive about but actively seeking contrary views, to counteract confirmation bias. Towards this, he suggests building a 'challenge network', beyond the support network most of all strive for. He posits the 'benefits of doubt', and suggests celebrating the 'joy of being wrong'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But Grant also alerts the reader that while 'task conflict' is constructive and beneficial, allowing it to become 'relationship conflict' is fraught with risks. He posits that interpersonal conflicts need to be handled more like a dance and less like a battle. Towards this, he shares some strategies. Like ask more 'How' questions, instead of more 'Whys' which may potentially harden the listener's stance. Also, 'less is more': don't pile on too many arguments, which anyway makes the opponent put up their defences, and instead lead with a few strong points. And while doing that, respect the autonomy of the other party, their choice to make their own decisions - don't be a 'logic bully', as one of Grant's former students apparently called him when bombarded with a flurry of arguments for career choices. Seems many of us may've been at the wrong end of such 'over argument' from 'logic bullies'!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">A large part of the book's appeal lies in the counterintuitive thoughts which Grant brings in, things which we don't readily think about. Things like 'complexify', which goes opposite the buzzword of simplifying everything. Grant argues that focusing on shades of grey of certain things or situations actually helps bring in more realistic and relevant perspectives, and thus helps us resolve or understand issues better. Another advice, for oganizations this time, is to abandon 'best practices' (ah... aren't we all upto our gills with this term!), as the term assumes that we're already in the best place possible. Instead, he says strive for 'better practices' on a continual basis.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Overall, a gem of a book which really makes the reader think about the act of Thinking, and equips us to deal with the ever-changing world in a better way.</p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-58351283440724682872023-01-19T20:08:00.002-08:002023-01-19T20:09:39.540-08:00Book review - 'Helgoland'<p> Helogoland' by Carlo Rovelli</p><p><br /></p><p>In the last chapter of the book, Rovelli very kindly includes a few paragraphs which save the discerning reader the effort to write a review. This is helpful, as writing any summary of this book could prove quite an impossible task for a layman, if interested, reader. As the reader is never sure of having grasped the core of the concepts so beautifully explained by Rovelli.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXJ-LbmEcfiuWKjpyiaaXZtBry7hqIPH_ociEcqHCtcR_TH6LU2QpnfrdALkPDpEaUIqK9bJ5Se59Bjognu6ENLa3TrhlrpFJxEYD1pehKtoUygIpS2zgs0iMcxewuPqJ6wqcF3tqCfLtehnqkqw3VW7Wq8EJzVt4_MHN0Mm4bUvPWebYqvXI/s4000/IMG_20230119_203314.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXJ-LbmEcfiuWKjpyiaaXZtBry7hqIPH_ociEcqHCtcR_TH6LU2QpnfrdALkPDpEaUIqK9bJ5Se59Bjognu6ENLa3TrhlrpFJxEYD1pehKtoUygIpS2zgs0iMcxewuPqJ6wqcF3tqCfLtehnqkqw3VW7Wq8EJzVt4_MHN0Mm4bUvPWebYqvXI/s320/IMG_20230119_203314.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMKgZ1frxKvgp2A6bBhyPSqHOaFclw_vDaw2ZgsY6YN_WlTUyxkl0L2wutzbPgFXM_Y51T35TV_g11wXzqDOfJokVgufxEEpkJ-ph3m1cOjuhvIQ6o3SuGTSxfxERMBXVj2NTJXk7e1xvV0S8NGqkFqV2VvIJqGwQy-tqpLWL16_p9V-X5EfE/s3000/IMG_20230119_203409__01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2649" data-original-width="3000" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMKgZ1frxKvgp2A6bBhyPSqHOaFclw_vDaw2ZgsY6YN_WlTUyxkl0L2wutzbPgFXM_Y51T35TV_g11wXzqDOfJokVgufxEEpkJ-ph3m1cOjuhvIQ6o3SuGTSxfxERMBXVj2NTJXk7e1xvV0S8NGqkFqV2VvIJqGwQy-tqpLWL16_p9V-X5EfE/s320/IMG_20230119_203409__01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>But that's not a matter of shame. Not when as formidable a scientist as Einstein himself just couldn't bring himself to accept some of the core ideas of quantum physics, falling back on rhetoric about God not playing dice. The same remark which earned a retort from the great Niels Bohr. The same Bohr who inspired a young Heisenberg to journey to the sacred island of Helgoland in the North Sea and come up with the astounding theory.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk_OZLDYyEAZAP6OJd4zyRlLH7YSRNsIfiBIENVyySecQG49lLYXhy0RQEnqsiBFQA6_lXzWPOSth9odC1MOfOrO06FM_QlLE9omDj7fdgNDKA_BA5TqU3bhASZ32w9yaAzF3r2cno3fmB3RZoah3jBow4FiFeqpFOnQeKWg6MmkUFiHkcu7I/s4000/IMG_20230119_143359__01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1521" data-original-width="4000" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk_OZLDYyEAZAP6OJd4zyRlLH7YSRNsIfiBIENVyySecQG49lLYXhy0RQEnqsiBFQA6_lXzWPOSth9odC1MOfOrO06FM_QlLE9omDj7fdgNDKA_BA5TqU3bhASZ32w9yaAzF3r2cno3fmB3RZoah3jBow4FiFeqpFOnQeKWg6MmkUFiHkcu7I/w320-h122/IMG_20230119_143359__01.jpg" title="A lively tete-a-tete between Einstein and Bohr" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>Without giving any spoilers (as if I could!), the Quantum theory of physics holds that "Everything is what it is only in relation to something else". So it seems that the question 'If a tree falls in the forest and nobody sees it, did it really fall' was not a rhetorical or 'trick' question, but a valid scientific query. And it's been answered with a 'No' by quantum theory of physics.</p><p>It'd fair to say that the Quantum theory took shape with the active collaboration of multiple scientists, among them Shrodinger (he of the Cat fame, the cat playfully depicted on some pages of this book) who initially diverged from Heisenberg on one facet of the theory but eventually came round decades later and accepted his error, even if in an offhanded sort of way. Many of these scientists went on to be awarded the Nobel, and Rovelli may well be on the way there, being himself a Quantum physicist specialising in the string theory of quanta.</p><p><br /></p><p>But the high points of the reading experience of this book was not the scientific facts and discoveries, interesting as these doubtless were. Rovelli brings in his perhaps unique blend of science, history, philosophy and poetry to explain the core theory. Here talking about philosophical sparring of Marx, Lenin and Bogdanov on the core of communism and private property. There talking about the musings of 1st century CE Indian Buddhist monk Nagarjuna. And then liberally quoting Shakespeare and the like. All the while continuing to weave these disparate thoughts into the mesh of quanta.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikCJWKpLhOsGkDXU3QubOh2Z8IH--LKasyb4Gg6dZunJavLfokO9XPN5IdHJ3UrDWP-P9ijmVXWLiH6HPtRhOvtk_H_VJKdbFY5Q3xzr2hYvJYUtnVR5AmGRfyDztF_cR5J8JtK3dZgjydXQPY_ySQrMj7UGT7nXHoJ3sLttbzr1IjKDD4lDU/s3000/IMG_20230117_200919.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="From 'Range' by David Epstein" border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikCJWKpLhOsGkDXU3QubOh2Z8IH--LKasyb4Gg6dZunJavLfokO9XPN5IdHJ3UrDWP-P9ijmVXWLiH6HPtRhOvtk_H_VJKdbFY5Q3xzr2hYvJYUtnVR5AmGRfyDztF_cR5J8JtK3dZgjydXQPY_ySQrMj7UGT7nXHoJ3sLttbzr1IjKDD4lDU/w320-h320/IMG_20230117_200919.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>One would especially like to recommend reading through the Notes at the end, not only to get more perspective as usual for any endnotes, but as a rich source of literature references spread across an eclectic range of domains.</p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHquKqlFywIF6Zov8VRY0NBgG4DhdFUhvBNkLq0TOOFJsaNHL1awsVfOV3qQR5-m3Bv52lubhB4qf3Ny_aFkTS5ztrGGBABJnd_FGZ1KTcC4XFTk1hqx4RGBd4S126Aq1nHnwnUJ8kWJ7SLFHRz_Idahgzkd6YkYO0KBTwDiMzRDP0wT9LiHY/s3000/IMG_20230120_082128__01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1932" data-original-width="3000" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHquKqlFywIF6Zov8VRY0NBgG4DhdFUhvBNkLq0TOOFJsaNHL1awsVfOV3qQR5-m3Bv52lubhB4qf3Ny_aFkTS5ztrGGBABJnd_FGZ1KTcC4XFTk1hqx4RGBd4S126Aq1nHnwnUJ8kWJ7SLFHRz_Idahgzkd6YkYO0KBTwDiMzRDP0wT9LiHY/s320/IMG_20230120_082128__01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-9237007450174876702022-12-13T09:49:00.002-08:002022-12-13T09:49:54.297-08:00Temples and changing culture<p>During my work travels across South East Asia about two decades back, I used to be surprised by relics of Hindu icons languishing behind majestic Buddha statues (in alcoves at Angkor Wat) or lying dejected (at Jakarta Museum). Coupled with extensive commonalities with Indian languages in countries like Indonesia (Bahasa) and Cambodia (Khmer spoken alphabet seemed almost identical to Bangla, though the words and script are not), this may give the impression of Hindu culture being 'subsumed' by an expanding Buddhism in SE Asia (later to be overriden in some regions when Islam came in).</p><p>But recent research (as quoted in 'Coromandel' by Charles Allen e.g. Ch. 4) appears to indicate that similar subsuming of Buddhist and Jain culture, or the temples at least, may've happened right here in India. So it was never a one way street!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy2Zfy-smbfP6pyhAHZF67ToCE5ADSjk5AMbdivE3q0nyPY_RKNoXeY6f5Er4VGcwB_cVIGYs99qdvTadnF92tRSv4B59JUM2wxKOcMBaD7m5TomNvpmjfVTKruDy0QzIHlCeJFjpubLb0FtLTrjErS0mn9gaejuuVN_fmEc54TCYKTRGbg0w/s4000/IMG_20221213_221943.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy2Zfy-smbfP6pyhAHZF67ToCE5ADSjk5AMbdivE3q0nyPY_RKNoXeY6f5Er4VGcwB_cVIGYs99qdvTadnF92tRSv4B59JUM2wxKOcMBaD7m5TomNvpmjfVTKruDy0QzIHlCeJFjpubLb0FtLTrjErS0mn9gaejuuVN_fmEc54TCYKTRGbg0w/s320/IMG_20221213_221943.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFx2wnBAgKEFHuajX6QoSgUTX6auXu5MAH9NoWS2jn_UrvVMWGf0c2u54_1DHtG1PFtfxDRVZAcAXJQ08oldZM9S74lwonCz3jvZGzuZT2XFRvGJBAyldCW9emA8G8Un30dQd3hg70Vr-neyoZ6p3t6sNOzs49DW8e_4kN5wzro5vT_4-NODY/s4000/IMG_20221213_222009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFx2wnBAgKEFHuajX6QoSgUTX6auXu5MAH9NoWS2jn_UrvVMWGf0c2u54_1DHtG1PFtfxDRVZAcAXJQ08oldZM9S74lwonCz3jvZGzuZT2XFRvGJBAyldCW9emA8G8Un30dQd3hg70Vr-neyoZ6p3t6sNOzs49DW8e_4kN5wzro5vT_4-NODY/s320/IMG_20221213_222009.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQO9Z_juLGVlvKBtuCZ1yU6MncLWS1G_cklWiuif6VURUjE4W5ReiFSKWEdQfwK-UUvkIRduXCo9YI7LKzrXVG9K6sv_bj2joxOivl__NZqeTGDCKaETIgv9XvtImmZBXXBmtLV6zY_IbgkvIMNxzXnEL2se2HaflEPCxQnhZhY6BD0eTOLTg/s4000/IMG_20221213_222037.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQO9Z_juLGVlvKBtuCZ1yU6MncLWS1G_cklWiuif6VURUjE4W5ReiFSKWEdQfwK-UUvkIRduXCo9YI7LKzrXVG9K6sv_bj2joxOivl__NZqeTGDCKaETIgv9XvtImmZBXXBmtLV6zY_IbgkvIMNxzXnEL2se2HaflEPCxQnhZhY6BD0eTOLTg/s320/IMG_20221213_222037.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-67325513247561524942022-08-19T23:07:00.001-07:002022-08-19T23:09:57.964-07:00Empathy vs. Compassion<p>I've been quite a bit intrigued at times when certain persons are perceived as insensitive or even apathetic, even when they seem to be doing reasonably well helping the people or causes they're accused of being apathetic to.</p><p>Listening to the book 'Humankind' (an excellent ode to positivity, which takes apart all the negative 'tenets' we go by) by Rutger Bregman, the portion in the Epilogue dealing with compassion, clarified the issue a lot. </p><p>The author says that, to really be able to help others, people need to be more compassionate, not necessarily (or not just) more empathetic. This is supported with evidence from a scientific study of people's brains being scanned while they were told to consciously experience empathy and then compassion about a certain situation - it was reported that different areas of the brain 'lit up' in the two cases.</p><p>The author gives the example of a child who's afraid of the dark - to help the child, the parent or caregiver does not cower in a corner thinking about the causes of the fear (empathy), but instead feels for the child and soothes him/her with comforting behaviour (compassion).</p><p>It seems to me that people displaying compassionate behaviour have to retain a level of reasoning in their mind, to be able to formulate responses and actions to help out, and that may be why they're perceived as 'dispassionate' and thus 'devoid of feeling', not being able to balance 'thinking' and 'feeling' to the degree possible for the more voluble (who may be perceived as more empathetic but may or may not be more compassionate).</p><p>Added to this is the factor that compassionate behaviour may be more 'action-oriented', while empathetic behaviour can be more expressive (verbally or otherwise). And we all know that the old adage of 'Actions speak louder than words' has been turned on its head in the current age of 'in your face' behaviour and microsecond attention spans where, for instance, love has to be expressed in words rather than just conveyed through gestures and actions.</p><p>Which is probably why people with genuine compassion, who may actually act on their feelings of empathy by helping through their actions, may be unfairly characterised as unsympathetic.</p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-59105554479096081462022-05-15T21:09:00.001-07:002022-05-15T21:09:23.393-07:00Fungibility in Nature<p>Had an epiphany of sorts, during my daily morning readings today. (Nothing groundbreaking, and may look too simplistic to some.)</p><p>Being a finance person, I've been aware of the concept of fungibility since a few years now. Basically, as I understand it, fungibility means that any random unit of a certain thing is exactly equal in value to any other random unit. Money is the most common thing described as fungible, since a note or coin of, say, ten rupees is exactly equal in value to any other of ten rupees. (This doesn't consider the practices of collectors, who fondly collect notes or, more typically, coins of a certain vintage, which actually gain in value over time, regardless of their underlying value which the Governor of Reserve Bank of India "Promise(s) to pay the bearer...' as printed on the note!)</p><p>The concept of fungibility has further come into prominence in recent years in the digital realm, specifically in the context of digital 'currencies' (recognised vor not) and 'tokens'. Technically, all digital 'currencies' like Bitcoin and Ethereum are what is known as 'tokens', and one unit of, say, Bitcoin floating around anywhere in cyberspace is supposed to be equal in value to any other unit of Bitcoin stored or traded anywhere else, the value itself being arrived at through a complicated process, not relevant for our discussion here. On the other side are NFTs, or Non Fungible Tokens. These are supposed to be unique, typically representing something in real world, for instance a shoe or a song or a photo, usually with some unique identifier. As such, these are 'non fungible', that is, no two units of the specific token is an exact substitute of any other.</p><p>Coming back to our core discussion after this lengthy detour, wouldn't it be helpful if we could consider our relationships with others also as 'fungible'? Say, someone could have slighted us or even harmed us in some way in the past. Typically, we carry around that hurt for years, sometimes our while life, even as we may realise that this actually harms us only and possibly restrains our development, without the object of our hate being even aware of it. In such a scenario, couldn't we instead think back to the behaviour of another person who would've done us some good (and, if we think sincerely, most of us can surely find a person or persons to whom we should be grateful to). </p><p>So, if we follow the concept of fungibility, can't we treat the behaviour of our do-gooder as an exact substitute for that of our supposed 'enemy'? (This may also be in line with the traditional Indian ethos of เคตเคธเฅเคงเฅเคต เคเฅเคเฅเคเคฌเคเคฎเฅ or 'the world is our family'.) Once we're able to do that, we should be on our way to release the negative energy trapped in our feelings of hurt, letting our psyche fly higher to the realm of wholesomeness.</p><p>This could possibly also be applied to our own behaviour towards others. But perhaps that's another discussion.</p><p>Something to think about...</p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-9372467948824210662022-05-06T09:31:00.007-07:002022-05-06T19:20:40.543-07:00Concepts of Freedom and Property in Mediaeval Europe<p>David Wengrow and the late David Graeber, 'spiritual father' of the <i>Occupy Wall Street</i> movement, co-wrote a wonderful critique of European-dominated narrative of world history, 'The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity'. Their attempt is to stand on its head the self-important 'history written by victors', parts of which are anyway being debunked all around as formerly subjugated countries pull off the yoke of European economic colonialism, decades after political colonialism went out of fashion.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1gCMZaduoX4mPG-6j1bc3QCZPTxO5-hCQPF3ZlLJmf5XkHNLNideB8sejXP_T2k0Qi02NqLJMceOfL_NRG2mY3fHOBkhxHs-7ee2V9FwvgLLFZwnm-ZDNOhj9lYR7uzIcbYlk388Wekuve3_ccRkmJUgAi_VrXXTCHTWhjW2rfAnVihvjoGs/s615/downloadfile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1gCMZaduoX4mPG-6j1bc3QCZPTxO5-hCQPF3ZlLJmf5XkHNLNideB8sejXP_T2k0Qi02NqLJMceOfL_NRG2mY3fHOBkhxHs-7ee2V9FwvgLLFZwnm-ZDNOhj9lYR7uzIcbYlk388Wekuve3_ccRkmJUgAi_VrXXTCHTWhjW2rfAnVihvjoGs/s320/downloadfile.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><p>One of the themes tackled by the authors is that of European 'Renaissance' of the 17-18th century, heavily 'publicised' as a home grown effort. With copious references to books of French Jesuit priests who arrived in North America with the invaders, putting forth detailed accounts of their interactions with indigenous American thinkers (including the legendary Wendat leader Kandiaronk, whose thoughts were popularised in books written by an itinerant French writer, in the style of dialogues with a 'noble savage', a construct which was catching on at that time), the authors comprehensively prove that much of the ideas underlying the Renaissance were actually absorbed from such interactions, and did not in fact sprout spontaneously in European minds.</p><p>On the subject of individual freedom and liberty in the specific context of property rights, the authors extensively quote the 18th century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He is shown to be heavily influenced by the then prevailing 'dialogues' floating about in European societies in various forms, including in the form of dramas, based on the same indigenous American thoughts.</p><p>In this context, a particular thought of Rousseau which is quoted throws light on how the concept of individual freedoms evolved in European cultures, as opposed to the completely different, much more egalitarian and compassionate path and bedrock of indigenous American philosophy. Some excerpts may help:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-_N5TgAOXdo1nx0JoZoyQZawZbtUiR9Nnuo4lHcBLmhmcqfFYnl2UVbsTv5TeKRgoVUFTCcAB_jwuzfAdWThJqhliU4J1NgekQZYgr7t2exNWkA8gXmnHPUwn5YNZng5G6at8wBsxaVbe-PpTwgGOOHMS4op1xobe25-DRu_wOJl6bhc9B68/s3456/IMG_20220506_205609.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="3456" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-_N5TgAOXdo1nx0JoZoyQZawZbtUiR9Nnuo4lHcBLmhmcqfFYnl2UVbsTv5TeKRgoVUFTCcAB_jwuzfAdWThJqhliU4J1NgekQZYgr7t2exNWkA8gXmnHPUwn5YNZng5G6at8wBsxaVbe-PpTwgGOOHMS4op1xobe25-DRu_wOJl6bhc9B68/s320/IMG_20220506_205609.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzD9GVIi6T2aHJIhhN4fY__NfcfxEPBNwszgv85cwa5Z2aF5ETCKEBz_VDYlQ6ubuFXxwRlNsrAJS4pg8b5DLyW0z5MUW4iEiftIJDGSFZwsYga_Wi36Ti2l5KeVw2sGibhknSv_BmSbpOwVdbeTZyy03vlK-Clc9nNxlONe0Eo1AIs4e2guQ/s3456/IMG_20220506_210449__01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="3456" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzD9GVIi6T2aHJIhhN4fY__NfcfxEPBNwszgv85cwa5Z2aF5ETCKEBz_VDYlQ6ubuFXxwRlNsrAJS4pg8b5DLyW0z5MUW4iEiftIJDGSFZwsYga_Wi36Ti2l5KeVw2sGibhknSv_BmSbpOwVdbeTZyy03vlK-Clc9nNxlONe0Eo1AIs4e2guQ/s320/IMG_20220506_210449__01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmICHRlpGMya5HIaD-kPY_SJ2flG-JQmyTENzdfZnQQysQJ94wvCoGgvYrfhyCu6ZRXhxYJzjUwWR2CS_N6GArdCI5L8PnoLGhaN-R7LS0_BqOU2YvH2XiLQR5MY9n-F4ZmzLYM9WHUL9rd9uZZNW5z8MsgiG_4CNl9Ad5l_bVyTNowduz0m0/s3456/IMG_20220506_210559.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="3456" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmICHRlpGMya5HIaD-kPY_SJ2flG-JQmyTENzdfZnQQysQJ94wvCoGgvYrfhyCu6ZRXhxYJzjUwWR2CS_N6GArdCI5L8PnoLGhaN-R7LS0_BqOU2YvH2XiLQR5MY9n-F4ZmzLYM9WHUL9rd9uZZNW5z8MsgiG_4CNl9Ad5l_bVyTNowduz0m0/s320/IMG_20220506_210559.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIVY-D9XlE7ThzJNRrdC97jMLhnifXE21jjNiwCx2WQGbfyRulJjUKgAhHOaT2vTFe_OHUb4IaXfvnBXnZQzgSd3qHhiDcuuaKL4rwUwwJso9Kn4FSmWuM-DkTxm6FTdjKj63GvPDkPcyW91FdBekyFXS1SlMeZYsNkKH1peeMNTJMhr5byZc/s3456/IMG_20220506_210809__01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="3456" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIVY-D9XlE7ThzJNRrdC97jMLhnifXE21jjNiwCx2WQGbfyRulJjUKgAhHOaT2vTFe_OHUb4IaXfvnBXnZQzgSd3qHhiDcuuaKL4rwUwwJso9Kn4FSmWuM-DkTxm6FTdjKj63GvPDkPcyW91FdBekyFXS1SlMeZYsNkKH1peeMNTJMhr5byZc/s320/IMG_20220506_210809__01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYvCLQ4_N1n9o9anIHD2sUDKa4Bl8AKwraKZe3BeSOYepOiM5Wew6LOsHsXgxXJ_lZKeUH2DZ-0WL2V-tMXs2ISk59JK_BTdpjzfhuY6NkltXT154dua6G5cRaCVdkai-PubAqcPxIxM1XRAJfGE9gXdbKqDnzcVyCnCContZwesQJSLEVoOE/s3456/IMG_20220506_210829__01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="3456" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYvCLQ4_N1n9o9anIHD2sUDKa4Bl8AKwraKZe3BeSOYepOiM5Wew6LOsHsXgxXJ_lZKeUH2DZ-0WL2V-tMXs2ISk59JK_BTdpjzfhuY6NkltXT154dua6G5cRaCVdkai-PubAqcPxIxM1XRAJfGE9gXdbKqDnzcVyCnCContZwesQJSLEVoOE/s320/IMG_20220506_210829__01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>On a slightly different note, not connected to the authors' arguments, the above perhaps puts in a bit of context a slightly puzzling feeling many people of cultures other than European have carried for years and years: namely, as to why people (or at least politicians) of European-descended cultures <i>talk</i> so much about liberty, equality, freedom and compassion (thoughts which may come naturally to people of some other cultures) <i>while</i> doing their level best to deny and snatch away those very things from others, earlier openly in the colonial era, and of late camouflaged behind veneers of free trade (read: economic dominance) and enforcement of 'rule based order' (read: war and other forms of aggression, driven by arms industry lobbies).</p><p>The reason for this dichotomy and holy talk may lie in the fact that in European societies in middle ages, from which most current Western politico-economic and social structures have developed over centuries, such lofty concepts were simply not the 'order of things' (unlike, say, in the Wendat society, or in the Lichchhavi and Shakya <i>Janapadas</i> of north India in the first millennium BCE). Social and political status in European societies of that time was based purely on property and economic affluence, and individual freedoms and even liberty flowed out of that only, with no place for compassion of any sort on that count. (As an aside, this may also be the reason for the violent opposition in such societies to even a whiff of the concept of Communism, a la McCarthy years in US, and its characterization as pure evil.) </p><p>So could all that talk of compassion actually be arising out of a subconscious guilt at the human depredations inflicted upon other peoples by adherents of this core philosophy of European-seeded thought?</p><p>{We've to be very careful to distinguish here between indigenous American thoughts of that time and later/current American philosophies: the two have absolutely no parallels and are in fact diametrically opposite in many ways, not the least because most indigenous American tribes like the Wendat were wiped out by the marauding Europeans, something which continued at least till the 19th century if not later, and the current American philosophies are probably rooted on the bedrock of the same European thoughts, especially about property, dominance and freedoms, Renaissance-influenced or not.}</p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-68832850971608595622022-04-15T05:50:00.001-07:002022-04-15T05:50:59.226-07:00Surviving and Thriving in 'The Passion Economy'<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">All around, the poor seem to be getting poorer and the rich richer, on the back of their favoured vehicles of enterprises, virtual and real, ballooning up in size and scale, often courtesy the new-fangled technological tools of automation, AI, robotics and the like (with startups quickly becoming Unicorns and even Decacorns, even with minuscule success rates). In this scenario, most may be excused for thinking that there's hardly a chance in hell for small and midsize businesses to survive, as the behemoths in their industry rampage around gobbling up all available spaces and monopolising supply chains.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Adam Davidson begs to differ. With a plethora of real world examples, Adam illustrates how some smaller enterprises have not only survived but managed to carve out their own niches, fiercely protecting their turf, transforming what they do and how they do it, and actually growing their businesses sometimes beyond their own wildest imaginations. And all this they do by consciously beating complacency and diligently working at identifying, being close to, and constantly delighting their core customer base with innovative products and services.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyjuK8vlCeTkz0e8Ryyduvpu4YhmkOAC_bJ5Y1Wd3B__qTedjGVVN7GgFso9oxS99CPaNphO_Y2-2usVQ2LbMPltdoQT1p27bqgHMdeyfRwG4j7jxhzQ-ZE4wTLKQy4C-tM6bpQ2_LBwEDAlr9hcAk8z4OUkf9hYGXcDPc4R2D6wkgitRLcAY/s274/PasEco.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="274" data-original-width="184" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyjuK8vlCeTkz0e8Ryyduvpu4YhmkOAC_bJ5Y1Wd3B__qTedjGVVN7GgFso9oxS99CPaNphO_Y2-2usVQ2LbMPltdoQT1p27bqgHMdeyfRwG4j7jxhzQ-ZE4wTLKQy4C-tM6bpQ2_LBwEDAlr9hcAk8z4OUkf9hYGXcDPc4R2D6wkgitRLcAY/s1600/PasEco.png" width="184" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Adam delves deep into the whats and hows of the new age entrepreneurs, sometimes fourth or fifth generation descendants of the founders, to reveal what clicks. He culls out 8 'Rules of the Passion Economy', and analyses each in depth for their potential to add scale and value to the chosen businesses. The rules are centered around identifying the core business, pursuing 'intimacy at scale' with a sharp focus on customer passions (and how to communicate the passion 'story'), fostering entry barriers in terms of unique offerings rather than commoditization, and the nuances of selling price and what it conveys in terms of value. All through, the focus is on relentlessly working to know the needs of core customers (something of a matter of faith with old world entrepreneurs but sometimes sadly neglected during the pursuit of scale and latest fads) and servicing such needs in unique ways. Along the way, some entrepreneurs also explain why they chose to avoid growing beyond a point, to be closer to the customer and also to 'avoid unwanted attention' which'd detract them from their core mission.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The legwork put in my Adam epitomizes his approach to the Passion Economy itself. The chapters come across not as cut and dried business narratives, but as intimate stories. And the approach is thorough and deep. For instance, in the chapter on Ocho Candy, Adam delves into the life and ethos of Jesuit priests, the nuances of mass production and distribution, the economics of consumer packaged goods or CPG, and a bit about private equity and venture capital, besides of course the science of candy bars. That's some landscape to cover! In a similar vein, Adam covers enterprises in such varied domains as business consulting, accounting services, winemaking, Amish manufacturers, stationery, and ice cream (besides or course candy bars). In almost every case, Adam appears to have personally met the storied entrepreneurs, in an effort to glean out the essence of their approach, to synthesize a set of principles which can be adopted by almost any entrepreneur to plug into the 'passion economy'.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">A great work, which can be read either as a set of fascinating stories of common people surviving and thriving against overwhelming odds, or as erudite lessons on interesting aspects of the modern world and economy.</span></p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span><p></p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-21329882839608440802021-12-15T04:58:00.001-08:002021-12-15T04:58:12.017-08:00Book - 'Man's Search for Meaning' by Victor E. Frankl<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">For a good number of years, while being aware of Victor Frankl's book, I've been avoiding taking it up, in the (mistaken, as it turns our) belief that it's another one of those preachy 'self help' books full of homilies for the troubled mind, while being disjointed from realities. Coming to know that it was by someone who survived the Nazi camps stirred some interest, but not enough to motivate me to actually read it. Must say the loss has been entirely mine! Getting on Audible finally led me to this gem of a (audio)book.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In my view, the unique thing about this book is that it's not based on an author's observations of others traits and behaviors, but in large part on his own life spent inside the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp, while undergoing all the travails and tortures of that life but also retaining the sanity to be an 'observer' of his own psyche and that of his co-sufferers. The second fascinating fact (perhaps one that enabled Frankl to add to his uncompleted manuscipt while at the camp) is that he was a trained psychologist, who rose to even greater heights post his tragic incarceration, pioneered a whole new discipline (Logotheraphy, a summary of which is given in Part II of the book), and wrote a number of books.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi79zh6pe8QRdMBBKctbs88r8h1wqyrpNtyREXK-wi0aXuhVB0DFKNj1Fha3TEAzk-RaaGma10Rq0_wLJhHSYQO6kLh-dAnBxhdFC7BpkxTY-Tsm7otrFBVwBHjQZE2zvlFneSMl-aeeFgcExDuRDWxRPMu-wR_ABXpRh_REkvo7LzaCWgIn2Y=s500" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi79zh6pe8QRdMBBKctbs88r8h1wqyrpNtyREXK-wi0aXuhVB0DFKNj1Fha3TEAzk-RaaGma10Rq0_wLJhHSYQO6kLh-dAnBxhdFC7BpkxTY-Tsm7otrFBVwBHjQZE2zvlFneSMl-aeeFgcExDuRDWxRPMu-wR_ABXpRh_REkvo7LzaCWgIn2Y=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Part I of the book, which is entirely based on Frankl's experiences at the camp, is quite a moving account. Besides alluding to the death (nee, murder by Nazis) of his wife who entered the camp with him, he gives a first person account of the minutiae of what went on at the camp on a day-to-day basis. The food deprivation, the overworking in trying conditions, the forced marches amidst freezing cold and snow, the swollen feet and emaciated bodies, the diseases and deaths in thousands, the incinerators with chimneys, references to the cannibalism which broke out in the camp towards the end - everything is brought out in full detail, albeit with compassion.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Frankl doesn't flinch from bringing out the 'deals with devil' by certain co-prisoners, warders and others, who inflicted or facilitated further tortures on others just to gain temporary respite from tortures and a few 'luxuries' like cigarettes. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Amazingly, Frankl demonstrates a clear eye and unbiased attitude even while explaining the psyche of the prison guards, many of whom, as he says, were probably traumatized and inured to human emotions by being exposed continually to the barbaric goings on at the camp.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But also brought out is the potential for redemption, for a man (Frankl was placed in the male part of the camp) to rise above the circumstances and both demonstrate compassion towards others and help them in any way possible, by sharing one's own sparse food, by words and actions, by (in Frankl's case specifically) by volunteering to help in the ward of sick prisoners, which came with a real risk of infection and death. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Through it all, Frankl continues to weave his own take on existential questions concerned with the meaning of life. One of the themes he propounds is that it's not what is the meaning of life, but what meaning we can impart to life. At another point, he muses whether enduring the travails of life, while preserving one's dignity and humanity, is itself the point of life. (In this, he's perhaps close to the 'Karma' concept of Indian philosophy.) He tells of how some prisoners, many of them motivated by Frankl himself, learned to avoid giving up on life by thinking about who or what is waiting for them after the end of war.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The book is full of such insights and life lessons, perhaps much of them taken up and popularized in later years. Part II of the book lays out a summary of the branch of psychology which Frankl pioneered - Logotherapy, seemingly more attuned to emphasizing the patient's own choices and responsibilities rather than following the set patterns of traditional psychology. Part II has some interesting tools and techniques, but a large part could probably be of interest mainly to psychologists, though laypersons may probably try out some of those with no harm.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">A must read for those looking to understand human psyche and motivation a little better.</span></p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-36898916796477896592021-12-07T06:24:00.001-08:002021-12-07T06:41:54.825-08:00Book - 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' by Bill Bryson<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Truth be told, I've been a fan of Carl Sagan since decades, since the time I used to watch his TV series 'Cosmos'. I've always firmly believed Sagan to be the high priest of popular science, the one person who brought together his deep knowledge in myriad disciplines together into one cohesive narrative, ably carrying forward the legacy of European polymath scientists and mathematicians of 16th century and later. And 'Cosmos' perhaps epitomized that ability.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But having read (or actually listened to, on Audible) 'A Short History of Nearly Everything', I'm persuaded to believe that Bill Bryson walks in Sagan's illustrious footsteps surefootedly and with an assured voice. Bryson's book brings together updated knowledge and perspectives on earth sciences, astronomy, core sciences including genetics, archeology and paleontology, medicine, anthropology and sociology, among other fields. On similar lines as Sagan, but with whole new perspectives. Perhaps the only 'Sagan-like' thing missing in this encyclopedic work is the 'leaps of inspiration' strewn throughout 'Cosmos', which many may've been tempted to dismiss as 'philosophizing', but which actually acted as the fulcrum of Sagan's arguments. Bryson goes some way on that path towards the end, especially when ruminating on the pernicious consequences that the rise of humankind has had on the 'disappearance' of thousand of species since ancient times. But otherwise, he revels in bringing to the reader cutting-edge knowledge on how the earth and life on it (including, lately, mankind, which has been there for only a minuscule proportion of earth's age of 4.5 billion odd years) evolved.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM-mA7YMG0W72lCgBgCgwRuOmw6Eji9fhT4nt9PCBzFd6O7W-Ur9XQCTI3Xh9KIzDgxFp2XMGkizBIgy0IWF3GtPJk838lUQdhw_RfkTBWkPHTgpCLXqajLkDL2hknRRr4UBju5w/s432/Book_ShortHIsttory.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="428" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM-mA7YMG0W72lCgBgCgwRuOmw6Eji9fhT4nt9PCBzFd6O7W-Ur9XQCTI3Xh9KIzDgxFp2XMGkizBIgy0IWF3GtPJk838lUQdhw_RfkTBWkPHTgpCLXqajLkDL2hknRRr4UBju5w/s320/Book_ShortHIsttory.JPG" width="317" /></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />One theme running across the book is the huge number of occasions when one scientist discovered or invented something, and someone else ended up getting all the credit (and, lately, the Nobel that went with it). As Bryson quotes one scientist, 'First they refute it, then they accept it, then they credit the wrong person'! And this has been true not only of controversial cases like (allegedly misogynistic) James Watson et all being awarded the Nobel for discovering the structure of DNA, relegating Rosalind Franklin who apparently did most of the gruntwork in X-ray crystallography, and eventually died from the cancer she got while working with it and was thus could not be considered for the Nobel (which is not awarded after the passing of a person). </span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But it's also happened in so many other celebrated cases like Charles Darwin being anointed the father of evolutionary theory of natural selection, even though he expounded only that it happens, not the how of it. That work was done by the priest Gregor Mendel (it's amazing to know how many scientists and mathematicians of yore were members of the clergy!), of the famous pea plants, who got no credit for it during his prime years and eventually left the field and died unrecognized - his contribution was acknowledged only in early 20th century by another group of scientists. The interesting story is that the detailed notes of Darwin from his HMS Beagle voyages across the world kept lying almost untouched for years, till he was motivated to write up his observations and conclusions when he got a manuscript from another scientist Alfred Wallace whose theories were too close for comfort to his own, all the time looking over this shoulders lest Church and country denounce him for even alluding that man evolved from ape! To be fair, though, Darwin got his theory published alongside that of Wallace.</span><p></p></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">It's such stories which enliven Bryson's tome and take it to a level much beyond just the bare facts which are availably aplenty in the cloud. And all through, while talking about evolution, Bryon cautions us that our very existence hanged by a thread and does even now, what with unimaginably powerful forces like the earth's magma chambers raring to explode as volcanoes, at such unexpected places as the Grand Canyon in US.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The other running theme is of course the multi-talented nature of many renowned scientists of those days, specialization only appearing towards the latter part of 20th century. It seems the flowering of their mind was aided in no small measure with what such towering personalities did in their 'off time', whether it was music and arts or something else! Alas, not only are such personalities long gone but, as a scientist tells Bryon, there is sometimes no continuity even in research into a discipline once someone working on it passes, no 'succession planning', till the field catches the fancy of the next group of scientists and, more relevant for modern times, till funding comes along, which may not happen for decades altogether.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Towards the end of the book, Bryson makes a fervent appeal for humankind to recognize the damaging effect it has had on the survival of so many species of life, from land animals to birds to amphibians to marine creatures, a process which is still continuing. And this when hominids have been on the planet for a minuscule two million years or so, as compared to the tens of millions for which dinosaurs roamed the earth, and hundred of millions (or even billions) of years for which many other creatures including microbes have been the inhabitants of earth, and continue to be. It's this which can perhaps be read as the overarching message of this great piece of work.</span></div>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-19294456069371950552021-11-12T23:39:00.002-08:002021-11-12T23:39:44.869-08:00Book review - 'Caffeine' by Michael Pollan (audiobook)<p> 'Caffeine' by Michael Pollan (audiobook)</p><p><br /></p><p>It's Pollan's name as author which initially drew me to this, the first audiobook I completed*, as I'm reading his rivetting 'Cooked' too.</p><p>In his own style, Pollan takes us through the history (and geography!) of caffeine. One of the new things I learned is that centuries before tea (which also has caffeine, though less than in coffee), it's coffee which was the staple drink in Europe. The ubiquitous coffee houses not only served the beverage but functioned as a place for intellectuals and scientists among others to get together and interact (Pollan contrasts those to the modern virtual version, the internet forums!), and reputedly the leader of the Paris Rebellion during French Revolution also frequented a coffee house and started the 'action' from one!</p><p>Apparently, coffee played a part not only in industry (coffee breaks, now a legally enforceable benefit in US, were meant to shore up the workers' energies against a midday sag), but also in wars - notably a Republican general during the American Civil War distributed quantities of coffee amongst his troops, which seems to have contributed not a little to their victory!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKAeVXMHAJpwTUit7SxP84WIrVCPw9iCztykAwvBKup0FAVOjHRkTJVy91mQmvT3sMPwNe0McpMOx-w-4VgUqQ3AwzqAp9nhBFrRb_Djr_5zP4dDJPFfahTbrx4tGADBdw7dWDeg/s1578/Screenshot_20211112-195831.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1578" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKAeVXMHAJpwTUit7SxP84WIrVCPw9iCztykAwvBKup0FAVOjHRkTJVy91mQmvT3sMPwNe0McpMOx-w-4VgUqQ3AwzqAp9nhBFrRb_Djr_5zP4dDJPFfahTbrx4tGADBdw7dWDeg/s320/Screenshot_20211112-195831.jpg" width="219" /></a></div><br /><p>Pollan's narrative gains a rare kind of personal touch as he reveals towards the beginning that he abstained from his daily cuppa(s) while writing this book, as a way to understand the effects of abstention from what effectively keeps most Americans awake and toiling!</p><p>A thoroughly enjoyable listen.</p><p>(* Completed not in the perhaps more typical manner of a mobile device with headphone, but aloud on an Amazon Echo Dot using Audible membership.)</p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-51009382090660495272021-09-10T20:42:00.000-07:002021-09-10T20:42:30.691-07:00Work without hope...<p>Long back, while in college, I read this blurb at the beginning of a course reading 'Nectar In A Sieve', a novel by Kamala Markandeya on the travails of a farmer family in India:</p><p>'<i>Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve,</i></p><p><i>And hope without an object cannot live'</i></p><p>I was reminded of this while reading a passage in the 'Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda':</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQyCGr0-5QojoNk-bHKFfiCmq-5xIbgT4GaVBi5Q9SlN5YbbTfgo3R5_LBSN7o6JNo1yFpj4nuyoiU8LnwufPM_fwlqWAaydBAshzhQuwwvA-A7wMaFg2IoCFo3XM3maulDQOReQ/s2048/IMG_20210911_085642.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQyCGr0-5QojoNk-bHKFfiCmq-5xIbgT4GaVBi5Q9SlN5YbbTfgo3R5_LBSN7o6JNo1yFpj4nuyoiU8LnwufPM_fwlqWAaydBAshzhQuwwvA-A7wMaFg2IoCFo3XM3maulDQOReQ/s320/IMG_20210911_085642.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOSBsbaaKx3xht-Td2eGmm9820-tutgH_XCGdKWUVwGgyHiXSLt9OyD1OThu0SYFBYPtVKHipG2z5ElC8QQiG7rweNm0dEo-zW2ufAsPylkyxzNu2vFNBuBk20RZMof8XUbIeOWg/s2048/IMG_20210911_085435.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOSBsbaaKx3xht-Td2eGmm9820-tutgH_XCGdKWUVwGgyHiXSLt9OyD1OThu0SYFBYPtVKHipG2z5ElC8QQiG7rweNm0dEo-zW2ufAsPylkyxzNu2vFNBuBk20RZMof8XUbIeOWg/s320/IMG_20210911_085435.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p>But isn't that the very thing that's a lifelong struggle for a householder, at least those driven by an overriding sense of duty and responsibility - the unrequited striving, in all arenas of life? To keep doing one's duties without any (or commensurate) appreciation, not to talk of return, for big and small things?</p><p>Seems Karm Yog suggests a way to rise above the often resulting frustration, to wash away not only the physiological but also the Karmic consequences of the negative feelings generated: offer (เคเคคเฅเคธเคฐเฅเค) everything to God, the work as well as both good and bad 'returns', and live in this ephemeral world like a water lily...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">{From 'Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda', Vol. I, Karma-Yoga}</span></div>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-61959417516328096252021-09-01T22:32:00.003-07:002021-09-01T22:32:50.337-07:00Can plants talk<p> https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210831-the-people-who-believe-plants-can-talk</p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-63130734184121571512021-06-23T10:54:00.000-07:002021-06-23T10:54:07.028-07:00Book review - 'Lone Fox Dancing'<p>'Lone Fox Dancing - My Autobiography'</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVAeStyzU3ROnYYccG-dhsQT9RcKbYOD7vb6XjQI791brFyuTf6mh7oklSsZBU7YcONfT5pr8N6caiAOjkKNI0E5Z80euVP_tboyRqgAJ_bAtV12sdbCQ-YW198FWAjD0uvPfkGQ/s2619/IMG_20210623_215102.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2619" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVAeStyzU3ROnYYccG-dhsQT9RcKbYOD7vb6XjQI791brFyuTf6mh7oklSsZBU7YcONfT5pr8N6caiAOjkKNI0E5Z80euVP_tboyRqgAJ_bAtV12sdbCQ-YW198FWAjD0uvPfkGQ/s320/IMG_20210623_215102.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Just finished reading the story of 'Ruksan' in his own words, and it's difficult to come out of the aura created by Bond through his magical pen. Words at par with the gentle stories he weaves, so authentic that the reader just wants to believe that Bond actually lived each story!</p><p>From his early life to ripe old age, Bond has laid out his whole life, though he admits towards the end that for some personal anecdotes he has changed the names. One thing that comes through is his deep love for his dear departed dad, whom he lost in his early teens, and the undertones of a strained equation with his mom, with whom he tries to make up on her deathbed.</p><p>And the other theme is his deep love for India. He does hop over to England for a couple of years at the beginning of his writing career, also taking up odd jobs to support himself. But he gets restless and comes back to India, to his beloved Doon, to the friends of his younger years and some new. His early struggles as a writer vouch to his abiding love for the art of writing, and he keeps at it for well nigh four decades before starting to get a degree of recognition. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi200MNHHR_Q0E3xFLg-ZEB80ZwnLzpssT2wl5wBA8kuTDGN-nOZPVYUcVGuSYd4Ww5oN0d_24TNi_iZRdV6DozQa8tHE_ZAGUuOO0v69cylCxXdsSI-ikCbIAFGVdnhNi6J7m_jQ/s2048/IMG_20210623_205543.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi200MNHHR_Q0E3xFLg-ZEB80ZwnLzpssT2wl5wBA8kuTDGN-nOZPVYUcVGuSYd4Ww5oN0d_24TNi_iZRdV6DozQa8tHE_ZAGUuOO0v69cylCxXdsSI-ikCbIAFGVdnhNi6J7m_jQ/s320/IMG_20210623_205543.jpg" /></a></div><p>It's amazing that Bond has continued to live in and around Mussoorie almost his whole life, that he continues to delight in and get inspiration from the trees, the birds, the wildlife of the hills, even as life around him has changed beyond recognition over the decades. And he continues to live with and support his adopted family of a man of the hills, his early support, over three generations.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2le4CWtrkL_8JFGvH1Nry95Au_i_QpGjJ0xCsqs7eOPF18sVBNa-dfgWseBxNIVVTNMDlZTZZmxxdF7b0oO-LOtR4Vo8tDWrmtWj04RDoEBPAyF1OfZ37zvq0h1DgcoOfSoxU6w/s2048/IMG_20210623_213321.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2le4CWtrkL_8JFGvH1Nry95Au_i_QpGjJ0xCsqs7eOPF18sVBNa-dfgWseBxNIVVTNMDlZTZZmxxdF7b0oO-LOtR4Vo8tDWrmtWj04RDoEBPAyF1OfZ37zvq0h1DgcoOfSoxU6w/s320/IMG_20210623_213321.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>A rewarding story of gentle love and deeply humanist outlook.</p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-83691534984072362082021-05-21T02:30:00.004-07:002021-05-21T02:42:14.938-07:00Book review - 'The Order of Time' by Carlo Rovelli<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLVOzbsnm_P3X3NKNzJhk2jxkP99KjfTZ4hbNdmDA0OeSd9SEXBLDFvO_GKUGnFDYaakHsL4I5DrPxYQW9e_s2anenCWukDvoYdSgShoQSzaDGjoD9c_EYVqZr0nkOy2rqD4OxmA/s278/Book+OrderOfTime.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLVOzbsnm_P3X3NKNzJhk2jxkP99KjfTZ4hbNdmDA0OeSd9SEXBLDFvO_GKUGnFDYaakHsL4I5DrPxYQW9e_s2anenCWukDvoYdSgShoQSzaDGjoD9c_EYVqZr0nkOy2rqD4OxmA/s0/Book+OrderOfTime.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />Having earlier read 'Seven Brief Lessons on Physics' by eminent physicist Rovelli, I had high hopes from 'The Order of Time'. Not only have those hopes been fulfilled, but Rovelli has gone much beyond. This book would be favoured by readers who like to be challenged.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Rovelli starts with the seemingly innocuous fact that "time passes faster in the mountains than it does at sea level", something empirically proven but perhaps not known to the majority of common people. He goes on to prove that this is true across the universe, well-proven a hundred years back by the curved space-time equations of Einstein (later revealed to be a gravitational field), who postulated that time slows down the closer one is to the source of greater gravity.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Next, Rovelli demolishes the idea that time is unidirectional, establishing that it's increasing entropy and a phenomenon called 'blurring' which gives the impression of time progressing, and that heat exchange is the only event which is unidirectional and thus giving rise to 'thermal time'. On the way, Rovelli puts paid to the concept of cause and effect, and even to past and future. (Did Einstein really write that "the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion"? Rovelli provides the context for that famous saying in chapter 7).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Coming to the 'present', Rovelli next establishes that "the present of the universe does not exist", using the example of interstellar travel. What effect this has on genealogies is an interesting aside.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Ultimately, Rovelli says, 'The world is made of events, not things'. And as Aristotle said: 'Time is nothing other than the measurement of change' in those things. Along the way, Rovelli also refers to the concept of 'loop quantum gravity' which is one of the approaches in quantum theory on which he works.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">And all this is explained by about the middle of the book. The rest of the chapters touch upon more complex, seemingly esoteric, concepts like 'indexicality'.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The range of sources across centuries accessed by Rovelli for this tome on time (though a slim volume at less than 200 pages) is mind-boggling, from Mahabharat to Ecclesiaste to the Greek philosopher Anaximander (the title of the book is from one of his writings) to the the Persian poet Shirazi to Aristotle to Newton and much beyond upto 20th century - reminds one of Carl Sagan's legendary 'Cosmos' which also had similar breadth of references.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This is not a book for casual reading. I usually read parts of 4-6 books on a typical day, but for this book I had to ensure complete peace and focus, else one may tend to lose the train of thoughts. But once the reader is able to focus, a rich harvest is assured.</span></p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-28653782219735886262020-12-16T05:40:00.004-08:002020-12-16T05:42:26.132-08:00Book review - 'The Hidden Life of Trees'<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwA49GuMKqGugRCNL3cgQxPvR05lYeKBnGD336j490eyoZFPQM6NQKoint6ApzD5VMABpVZ4ogR-Gi7b0JDMSgsU_oKCwbqpKMhLbS9fgpqdVYXPFFse5KU4uH5R_HxSz1YPtnGA/s4608/IMG_20201215_213518.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4608" data-original-width="3456" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwA49GuMKqGugRCNL3cgQxPvR05lYeKBnGD336j490eyoZFPQM6NQKoint6ApzD5VMABpVZ4ogR-Gi7b0JDMSgsU_oKCwbqpKMhLbS9fgpqdVYXPFFse5KU4uH5R_HxSz1YPtnGA/s320/IMG_20201215_213518.jpg" /></a></div><br /> #trees #woodwideweb<p></p><p><br /></p><p>'The Hidden Life of Trees' by Peter Wohlleben</p><p><br /></p><p>That trees in a forest communicate with and nurture each other through a vast underground 'mycelial' network of 'mycorrhizal' fungi, sometimes spanning hundreds of miles, is only one of the more astounding facts we learn from this treasure trove of a book on something so close to us and yet so far in understanding. </p><p>Contrary to the impression given out by the subtitle 'What they feel, How they communicate', this book is not only about these things, but also about other facets of the lives of trees - how they talk (using scents and sounds), how they walk (across generations of course, but over vast distances of thousands of miles over ice age progressions), how they fight back attackers (by synthesising specialty chemicals and by attracting other predators), how they nurture their 'young' (the 'old' being upto a thousand years of age or even more!), and the like.</p><p>The format of the book is also quite inviting, with short chapters dealing with different aspects of trees' lives.</p><p>It can be guaranteed that anyone reading this book seriously will not only get invaluable knowledge and insight into our closest neighbours everywhere, but would also gain a large measure of empathy for the oldest living inhabitants of this earth.</p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-62530653038732848972020-10-29T11:24:00.000-07:002020-10-29T11:24:08.162-07:00A biased question on the Chinese...<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> The late Sardar Khushwant Singh, who passed only a year short of a century thanks to his robust lifestyle and his daily dose of the tipple, was well known as a formidable and outspoken character, full of wit. Indian of my generation would probably remember that in the last couple of decades of his life, having given up editorship of venerable newspapers and magazines and mostly focusing on writing his later books, he still used to pen a regular column in newspapers such as the Hindustan Times. In the moniker for that column, his image was shown sitting inside a light bulb, almost as if inviting brickbats to be thrown at him, and fittingly the title of the column was 'With malice towards one and all'. So Singh was very upfront about his views and hardly gave two hoots that people would accuse him of writing maliciously.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In the same vein, let's get this out of the way first thing: This post is written with a pronounced bias as regards the Chinese character, and yes, it has a lot of generalizations. So those looking for some politically correct and totally balanced narrative, kindly look elsewhere. The titular question I'm asking today is: When was the last time you met/read about/heard about a generous Chinese? </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">A down to earth Chinese, yes. A gritty Chinese, yes. An aggressive Chinese, by all means! A crafty Chinese, of course! But a generous Chinese? In real life? In anecdotes? In literature? Ummm.... well... Is that a contradiction in terms? An oxymoron, perchance? </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">More seriously, does it have something to do with the ethos of 20th and 21st century Chinese people? In the early part of this century, when I traveled to China a few times on work, I was intrigued with certain expressions used by English-speaking Chinese. To be fair, they stated that the English terms they spoke were only close approximations of certain Chinese language terms, and not really equivalent. Even so, one particular expression that I remember is: "clever". So where in the normal course of conversation someone in another part of the world may use a term like 'intelligent' or 'wise', my Chinese interlocutors invariably used the term "clever". I was fairly new to the country and its people at that time, so didn't consider it polite to either point out the dissonance or ask their reasons too clearly. But the few times I referred to it, they just couldn't make out any difference between 'clever', as they used it, and intelligent or wise, one who could have a thinking mind yet not use it for personal advantage, for instance.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Much later, it struck me that the Chinese considered cleverness as the singular facet of intelligence. For certain Chinese, not to generalize, it's the cleverness, or perhaps the ability to use intelligence for personal gain, which is the foremost. And perhaps they just cannot fathom why someone who has the brains would forego personal gain and use it to benefit someone else, which is the hallmark of generosity.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">And this is not to trivialize how the Chinese thinking may've evolved to such ethos. They've doubtless passed through many travails since the ancient times that Chinese civilization was one of only four, along with India, Mesopotamia and Egypt, progressing westwards. After their empires petered out into weak monarchies, like many others before and around them, they were dominated by a series of forces. Even as late as 19th and early 20th century, they were pushed around by such powers as the British, with the Opium Wars imposed on them and turning a few generation of Chinese into addicts, and the Japanese during the second World War with a series of untold horrors including Nanking.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So have such travails inculcated in the Chinese a core ethos of cleverness, a conviction that the world will take them for a ride unless they deal 'cleverly' with all? Is that the reason that the Chinese are so dichotomous, spouting homilies for peace and a just order with a straight face and then turning around and heaping exactly the opposite on their supposed opponents? Is that why they've been at loggerheads increasingly with everyone, starting with Mao who was an expert in pitting Chinese against Chinese to foster an internecine war in the interests of a communist 'Cultural Revolution', another complete contradiction in terms as there was nothing cultural about it but only a revolution by the seemingly uncultured with a thin veneer of intelligentsia? And it's not only in the geopolitical arena that the Chinese have acted 'cleverly', but also in the commercial arena, lulling the then world economic powers by providing a 'factory to the world' and later trying to dominate the very economic machine of the world by leveraging its demography.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Know thy enemy, the 'clever' advised, perhaps including that mythical Chinese general Sun Tzu. So any effort at first understanding deeply the psyche and ethos of the Chinese, before engaging with them in any arena, seems the most 'clever' strategy to adopt for anyone...</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">With Malice towards... (with due apologies to Khushwant).</span></p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-6864073736347359852020-10-10T20:58:00.004-07:002020-10-10T21:04:31.564-07:00Coincidences...<p>It sometimes happens with probably all of us that we're thinking of something and then, either instantly or after a short time, we see some manifestation of our internal thoughts in the material realm i.e. the very thing happens or is seen by us. (And I'm not talking about supposedly random marketing links appearing on our Facebook page or stream right after we've viewed, and not even clicked, a certain product on Amazon! ๐ That's the art and science of AI-driven user manipulation as so tellingly expounded by industry insiders in the recent Netflix documentary 'Social Dilemma'.)</p><p><br /></p><p>There are various spiritual explanations for this phenomenon. Some hold that all of us are just flowing in a collective stream of consciousness, and so seemingly random thoughts are not really random but are plucked out of that same stream. And so, since the collective consciousness, for want of a better word, is aware of such plucking, we're then presented with the next logical evolution of that thought in the material world, either as a thing discovered or a happening. This is perhaps why it's said that 'Watch your thoughts, they become... your destiny'. This view also holds that all inventions are actually discoveries, of things or properties of nature lying dormant, sometimes in plain sight, till someone seemingly stumbles upon them in a flash of inspiration, even though after a lot of research and efforts.</p><p><br /></p><p>Lately, I've been ruminating on a few minor... ummm... injustices life seems to have handed me. Typical thoughts in a mid-life crisis (on the lines of 'I've done so much for others, what have I got in return' yada yada yada), which have the potential to turn any once energetic young person into a bitter old man, snapping at those around him to take out the frustration seemingly for minor slights or irritants, mostly unjustified considering life's bounties and good fortune. To avoid continuing down the usual path of self-pity and then anger, I started to train my mind on Bhagavad Gita's core philosophy of 'Karmanyevadhikarastay ma faleshu kadachana...' i.e. you only have a right to the action, not to the fruits thereof. it's good to remember that this, probably the most well known verse of the Gita, also extolls the virtues of ceaseless action (after all, we all have to 'pay our dues' to this earth) by ending with 'Ma tay sangoastvakarmani' i.e. don't let yourself fall prey to inaction.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now, one aspect of Karm Yog, epitomised by the above action, is the rising of the Karta inside us. Action often fuels the feeling of 'I have done this' in our ego, much against the admonition in the above verse of not taking credit for our actions. In this, what may perhaps come to our rescue is the other side of the coin, Bhakti Yog, which advises us to dedicate all our actions, and the results of such actions, to the almighty. (There's a beautiful song by Ramprasad, the 18th century devotee of goddess Kali: 'Shokoli tomari ichchha... Aami jontro tumi jontri...' i.e. I'm only an instrument in your hands.). Once we deduce that, one, nothing is actually done by us but we only pluck the actions out of collective consciousness as an instrument, and two, that as a corollary we don't have a right to the fruits of such actions, then the rising ego should be well controlled. So the right way seens to be to dedicate all our actions, and the fruits of such actions, to the almighty, while continuing to act out our part in this worldly drama. (And just a drama it is, as the Maya philosophy tells us.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Now, while I'm in the process of thinking all this through, what should I come across but the very thought in writing which aligns with the same throught process! Having 'coincidentally' risen a bit early and thus having a few minutes extra in hand before my morning walk, I decide to read an extra page of my daily Gita read. (I tend to 'ration' meaningful readings, so as not to cram my mind but be able to understand a bit as I go along.). The last verse on the last page I read today (of 'Yatharth Gita', an interpretation by Swami Adgadananda) is verse 29 of chapter 13, which goes like this:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtkV7kaEYVkoLOCMxRDvhhlh1um99Po8WXB2iQDjL04vnuOKPduX8DcLUXWIRD1iaiHITT8Sh-68toUIhDShxogY7h6GpkUbZlM2-7seFChZoKojyymnk-4b24HVMAIVZP738T4w/s2619/16023874710607263648339527106604.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="2619" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtkV7kaEYVkoLOCMxRDvhhlh1um99Po8WXB2iQDjL04vnuOKPduX8DcLUXWIRD1iaiHITT8Sh-68toUIhDShxogY7h6GpkUbZlM2-7seFChZoKojyymnk-4b24HVMAIVZP738T4w/s320/16023874710607263648339527106604.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>Voila - what a coincidence! Once we understand that it's nature which performs all actions, and that we're actually non-doer or non-agent, that opens up a whole new way of looking at and dealing with the world. Now to actually put this in action (pun intended) is the challenge... Didn't someone say that life is a lifelong self-improvement project? (Well, that someone's wife also said that a husband is a lifelong improvement project for a wife, but let's not go there at the moment...๐)</p><p><br /></p><p>Now, that I was inspired to put pen to paper (or, more aptly, keyboard to screen) to put down these thoughts, is that also a mere coincidence or...</p>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-84127932528608158712020-06-28T00:56:00.000-07:002020-06-28T00:56:06.717-07:00Book review - 'Gene Machine' by Venki Ramakrishnan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We keep learning regularly of how new frontiers of science have been reached, and of the recognition awarded to this or that scientist, or groups of scientists. And we keep wondering, what are such people made of, at what level of intelligence do they dwell, are they something above us mere mortals. (And this seems a feeling shared by Venki's wife Vera, who he says remarked after learning of his Nobel: "I thought you had to be really smart to win one of those!") Here, then, is a first person account by a Nobel laureate who has dedicated his life to researching into the <i>ribosome</i>, the 'Gene Machine' of the title which helps construct our body and mind by helping synthesize the various proteins which make it up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The book reads like a thriller! On how different groups of scientists across continents were striving to be the first to crack specific aspects of the workings of the ribosome (and, left unsaid, to have a fighting chance for the Chemistry Nobel, which Venki shared with two others in 2009). And the story unfolds as that of an underdog 'coming from behind' to breast the tape since, for a large part of his scientific career, Venki senses that he's somewhat of an outsider among the cozy group of scientists working on different facets of ribosome research. In fact, this seems to have influenced his worldview of the whole system of awards and rewards including the Nobel, as he writes at some length in the chapter aptly titled 'The Politics of Recognition'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What strikes the reader quite early is the humility with which Venki writes about his life's passion. Almost the first 40% of the book is focused on how other stalwart scientists, who worked in the domain since decades, helped bring the field of ribosome research into a certain state of maturity, even before Venki's life work begins. And not only in ribosome research itself, there were so many who helped perfect the equipments and sensors which would later help scientists and researchers make sense of the minute articles they were looking at, articles within cells which couldn't even be sensed, much less seen, with any kind of X-ray (till electron microscopes made it a bit easier).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">All through the book, Venki's passion for the domain itself comes through shining, bereft of any attempt at self-aggrandizement. He's very conscious of the stellar work his 'competitors' were doing in the 'race' to crack the secrets of the ribosome, a race which seems still on, though perhaps now shifted to a better track and with better equipment, as Venki writes in the Epilogue. And he's effusive in his praise for the junior scientists who chose to be associated with his labs over the years, describing their personalities (and eccentricities!) in some detail, besides of course the aspects of their work which helped along the main effort. Throughout, he refers to "our" work, rather than 'my'. It's touching to see the picture of Venki celebrating in Stockholm, while there to accept the Nobel, with almost all the associates who had worked with him at different stages of his career spanning across four decades.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Venki touches extensively on the issue of collaboration, in science as in other domains. Of how collaboration "works best when people know each other well and like working together, or when they bring complementary expertise to bear on a problem that no one group can tackle alone". And while being aware of the fierce competition in the field, he also admits that "even when scientists are competing, they are actually using one another's advances to make progress and are thus collaborating, albeit involuntarily". In fact, he seems to treat due acknowledgement of such contributions by others as professional courtesy, bristling at one point when referring to an incident when another scientist used his work but didn't acknowledge that during a lecture.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One may wonder at the felicity with which an accomplished scientist like Venki writes in plain language (mostly!) the story of his trials and tribulations, to make eminent sense to the lay reader. But then hints of that are strewn across the book, as Venki (and his team) had to write about their scientific discoveries not only for scientific publications like 'Science' or 'Nature', but also to make presentations to college students and even general public while on 'The Ribosome Road Show'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This, though, is no hagiography. Venki doesn't flinch from describing his own foibles, mostly in the scientific arena. His missteps, his misjudgments (both of people and scientific approaches), and his frequent irritability. He also describes briefly the uproar that resulted from his almost dismissing any connection with his birth country India, after being awarded the Nobel, especially with his "accident of birth" comment. He gives his reasons, but his expression of surprise (not pleasant surprise!) both at getting messages from Indian President and Prime Minister, besides US Prez and UK PM, and also at being awarded one of India's highest honors, are bound to leave a sour taste for Indian readers. Though this gels overall with his views, expressed earlier in the book, on other honors based on the Nobel award, he seemingly did try to make amends of some sort by accepting fellowship from Baroda university in India where he studied in the early part of his life till nineteen, along with Cambridge and Utah institutions where he worked, while rejecting all others.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The beauty of this book is that, even shorn of the scientific content (and there is quite a lot of arcane stuff there, naturally), it provides fascinating insights into the world of science and scientists, from the horse's mouth so to say. And if one is a wee bit interested in the scientific aspects, the book has sufficient material for the reader to make sense of any discussion on ribosome and, with some effort, even to talk intelligently on the rudiments of ribosome, including a bit about the functions of large and small subunits, RNA, DNA and proteins.</span></div>
Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-72036087077689691312020-05-09T02:34:00.000-07:002020-05-09T02:34:20.973-07:00Brazenness across decades....<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was watching an episode of the Netflix series 'Tokyo Trial', on the trial of Japanese military and civilian officials accused of war crimes, by a tribunal appointed mainly by the US General MacArthur, with judges from different countries from US, Europe, Asia all the way upto Australia and New Zealand. (The role of an Indian judge Pal, portrayed rather well by the recently deceased talented Indian actor Irrfan Khan, has interesting nuances.)<br />
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There's a scene (perhaps in Episode 3), after the Australian President of the Tribunal is effectively 'deposed' by the machinations of the British and a couple of other judges (who are worried that the 'too democratic' President is compromising on the ratio of Nuremberg trial of the Nazis), where the Netherlands judge, a 'protagonist' in the series, as it's produced jointly by Japanese and Dutch producers (having been 'turned' by Pal, pointing to still existing imperialist regimes, to a view that international jurisprudence hadn't yet progressed to a degree to consider a war, or an Act of Aggression by a country against another, as a crime in itself), recently 'advised' by his country's government to 'fall in line' with the majority view, goes up to a group of dining judges, which includes the US Judge Advocate General (recently appointed Tribunal President) and the British judge, and point blank asks the British judge whether he had anything to do with pressure being brought upon him.<br />
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The expression on the face of the British judge is worth noting: it's a mixture of haughty denial tinged with embarrassment at being accused so and also a bit of guilt (perhaps realising that the British government may have caused such pressure tactics).<br />
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Got me thinking: if this same scene was being enacted in 2020 instead of 1945, the expression on the face of the British judge would probably be a mixture of defiance, smugness and 'so what', half-trying to take credit for the influence-mongering even if not precipitated by him (as opposed to, in 1945, trying not to have anything to do with the same even if directly instigated!).<br />
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How far the world has come esp. in terms of humility and a sense of justice...</div>
Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12198027.post-15638804414502097542020-05-01T23:59:00.000-07:002020-05-01T23:59:16.721-07:00Intellectual pursuits in times of Covid...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I started on this post as the rant of a home-bound working male in India fulminating against travails of the <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30938-7/fulltext" target="_blank">lockdown </a>brought on by the worldwide <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/topic/coronavirus/" target="_blank">Coronavirus</a> or Covid-19 crisis. Along the way, it evolved into one with a wider view. Bear with me (and take it in the right spirit!)๐.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There would've been a reason that artists like Mian Tansen, one of Mughal Emperor Akbar's 'navaratna' or 'nine jewels', were able to rise to matchless levels of perfection in their chosen field.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The same goes, for instance, for the incomparable poetic compositions of Kalidas, a millennium earlier.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Or for Western stalwarts like Aristotle, Socrates or Plato, amongst multitude of others.</span></div>
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<img alt="Socrates - HISTORY" 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" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Fact is, hugely talented as these legends were, they were fortunate enough to be patronized by kings and emperors of their time (even though some like Socrates, forced to drink poison๐, fell out with their patrons at some point), who reportedly sometimes dedicated the revenues of specific villages or regions for the maintenance of these artists. As such, these worthies did not have to toil like the hoi polloi to make two ends meet, and hence had ample time and mental energy left to devote to their artistic and/or intellectual pursuits.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Would such stalwarts, even with their higher intellectual faculties, have been able to achieve the heights of perfection which they did, if they actually had to devote a substantial portion of their energies to physical (as opposed to intellectual/artistic) pursuits? Seems a tall order. Even from a quasi-scientific๐ angle, we know that the human brain <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20130509171737492" target="_blank">consumes </a>something like 20% of the total energy of the body, even as it consists of just about 2-3% of the body by weight. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, theoretically, if someone uses up, say, 70% of his energy in toiling to keep body and soul together, would s/he be left with sufficient energy to devote to intellectual pursuits? You can bet on that!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And here, we're not talking about physical work someone indulges in as a hobby, for instance carving or pottery, and not for earning one's living. These hobbies actually serve to re-energize or re-focus the mind, while the hand or fingers carry out certain activities almost mechanically.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Which is why personas who displayed extraordinary intellectual or spiritual traits, <i>while </i>engaged in making a living with physical pursuits, are given very high billing, at least by common people. Take the example of the Saint <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kabir-Indian-mystic-and-poet" target="_blank">Kabir</a>, who continued to function as a weaver while churning out poems and sermons of extraordinary spiritual insight.</span></div>
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<img alt="Kabir - Wikipedia" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQ90Cy93qmsf-z6nTjtb17CxL0nu429rL7r9ZS0yPKjkNB2rIHs&usqp=CAU" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Which is also why, in modern times, we applaud those who hold down and contribute value in a full time role while also discharging their familial duties, whether as a single parent, a primary caregiver or a homemaker, which especially goes for women in India (and indeed, across many other countries in South Asia and beyond). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One quails, though, at the 'convenient' depiction in 'modern mythology', especially in India (but also associated with someone like former Pepsico CEO Indra <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/03/indra-nooyi-shares-a-work-regret-on-her-last-day-as-pepsico-ceo.html" target="_blank">Nooyi</a>), about women who're virtually goddesses ('devi'), juggling work life and career smilingly!</span></div>
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<img alt="Multitasking Woman Stock Illustrations โ 1,367 Multitasking Woman ..." src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcR7dYkIXdQsbpbnQLM91f6rhG2GjtD383BZv8bbN3CVgregfHhP&usqp=CAU" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Indeed, so ingrained is this deified image of the Indian housewife as a 'devi' and so well drilled is it into us from a young age that, quite some years back, when I hinted at the unrealistic expectations from Indian women, at a schoolchildren's debate at that, not only were the participating children all at sea to appreciate the nuance, but even the teachers present were exchanging strange glances!๐</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Which brings me back to the topic of this post. Many (most?) men, especially in India (and perhaps in many other countries where men are not used to contribute equally to household chores), have been treating the current Covid-19 lockdown as a jail term, with forced labour.๐ One indication is the plethora of jokes and caricatures doing the rounds.</span></div>
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<img src="https://www.talentedindia.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/WhatsApp-Image-2020-04-04-at-19.55.41.jpeg" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Gone are the days of scooting off to office early in the morning, lounging with a mug of crisp coffee, browsing a few emails and websites, having a leisurely meal preferably accompanied by stimulating talk with a favoured person, some reading, putting in a few hours of the mandatory serious work, and coming home late with a long face complaining about the missing work-life balance! (Men: wait a wee bit while I put on my full body armour, before you start throwing the brickbats.๐) Indeed, I knew someone who, the moment the spouse started outlining some plans for the weekend, expertly feigned a call from office and scooted off to the cool climes of an inviting workplace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now, however, each and every aspect of our work life is totally transparent to the spouse. After all, there's only so far one can hide behind that impending call/VC/web session, before the spouse and other family members get wise and start monitoring the actual <i>content </i>of those calls/sessions. Hallelujah! ๐ฃ</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But seriously, however politically incorrect this may sound, the overwhelming feeling amongst some is that working with hands tires them out sufficiently to preclude taking on any heavy lifting (pun unintended) in terms of intellectual pursuits. So should one as well forget about innovative and/or strategic thinking while someone is doing the login-washclothes-webcall-cook-trainingsession-eat-washthepots-budgetreview-teamaking-teamsession routine? Some may feel so.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And yet, the flip side of the coin is, there are everyday examples of people (mostly women) who've been taking on this exact routine from time immemorial. And beating the pants out of competitors while at it. And deifying such excellent achievers helps no one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Indeed, the 'forced home imprisonment' may just about sensitize the primary earners (mostly men) better to 'what the hell does s/he do at home all day'. And, hopefully, start contributing more equitably to housework.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Or is that just a fond hope?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">PS: I'm sure, having been brought up and lived inside the cocoon of a male-dominated society, I've not been able to cover all bases as far as overcoming a chauvinistic thought process is concerned. Apologies in advance.</span></div>
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Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580432578997729992noreply@blogger.com0